Battle Cries

The battle is on. Doctors feel push to downplay injuries, Group tells OSHA of pressure by companies


"To outline their concerns, the physicians have sent a letter to federal workplace safety regulators and held a conference session in New York City on Monday. They're also planning to testify before Congress.

If successful, their campaign could affect the treatment of injured workers and might help change how the government assesses workplace safety.

"Our members feel they are being methodically pressured ... to under-treat and mistreat," said Dr. Robert McLellan, president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "...This is a grave ethical concern for our members. It's a grave medical concern."

His group represents 5,000 doctors; some treat workers referred to them by employers, while others work directly for companies."

Doctors explain in a New York conference that the loop holes, per say, in system reporting causes few inspections and ethical doctors to loose business. They are calling OSHA to investigate the accuracy of company injury logs, regulators to expand workplace safety measures and to rewrite rules pertaining to reporting injuries.

McLellan said he doesn't recall his group ever before taking such a strong stance on the issue. As one doctor at Monday's conference put it: "We need to treat the patient. Not the log."

I think OSHA is going to be busy in the near future, you can only play the game crooked for so long and sooner or later you loose the hand. Now it's time to anti up and start working for the people again.