Governing for Results 2 - Washington State Digital Archives

Department of Labor and IndustriesInjured workers get medical exams fasterLabor and Industries’ often arranges for independent medical examinations(IME) for injured workers to ensure they are receiving appropriate medical care.The requests for these exams originate with the worker’s claims manager atL&I’s central office in Tumwater, then are relayed to a field office for schedulingwith a local doctor or doctors. Sometimes this process can delay the claim,leaving the claimant frustrated and the department paying for additional time offthe job.A quality team examining this process found that for an injured worker in theSpokane area it took an average of 42 days from the time an IME was ordereduntil he or she could see a doctor. A process improvement test reduced thattime to about 28 days. The team found that about 14 days could be saved bytransmitting the department’s authorization letter electronically to the schedulerfrom claims’ word processing unit, then mailing medical history informationdirectly to the service location. (Before everything was packaged together andmailed to the Spokane office).Results★ The injured worker can see the doctor an average of 14 days faster.★ Savings (costs avoided) to the state’s accident compensation fund forSpokane were estimated at $274,000 per year using the new process. Since,in many cases, a worker cannot return to work until after he or she has seenthe doctor for an IME the department will avoid paying the worker for thoseadditional 14 days off work.★ Plans are now under way to phase in this process at all L&I offices.Team members: Don Green, Loris Gies, Sandra Leighton, Nancy Barnes, SteveClement, Carol Britton, Marsha Benson, and Elizabeth Larsen.CONTACTS: Tressa Olson (360) 902-633619