Should I go to the emergency room after the accident?

Yes, you should always get checked out by a doctor! Do not wait.

Should I go to the emergency room is a question often asked. The answer is Always!

Treatment at the accident scene will not reveal whether you have any broken bones. You need to go to the closest emergency room and do a check up, take x-rays of your check and shoulders (and any other part in your body that hurts). Having a broken bone and neglecting to take care of it as soon as possible can be a costly mistake.

You should always go to the emergency room. Even the accident is minor. What you should not do is drive there. Call one of your relatives or someone to drive you to the closest emergency room, or go in the ambulance. Again, going to the emergency room shows that you are concern about your health, it will also show that there is a valid and legitimate claim.

You should go to the emergency room as soon as you can. Do not allow for long gaps in time (you must go the same day). For example:

I had a claim once where the client was hurt. She was claiming a severe lower back and neck pain. She reported in her recorded statement that she drove from the scene to go to the emergency room. The accident happened at 3:00PM, but she did not make it to the emergency room until 8:30 PM.

I estimated that from the scene to the emergency room there was only five miles. Even allowing for one hour waiting for the police, bad traffic, and having a long wait at the emergency room, I could not figure out why it too her 4:30 to be seen by a doctor.

When I asked her why it took so long to be seen by a doctor, she explained that she had to stop to meet her friend to go out for pizza. After that, she dropped her friend and went to the emergency room. Do you see? Taking her claim seriously could be a challenge after that.

The adjuster (in this case me) will think that the injury is not really that bad; after all you went out for pizza! This does not mean she was not severely injured (she was indeed), but she had a difficult time showing that it was very painful, and that she did not start feeling pain until later.

One thing I strongly suggest is to never drive yourself to the emergency room. This is critical. You can be involved in another accident because your judgment is now impaired. It also shows that you are perfectly fine to operate a motor vehicle.

It also shows that your vehicle is in good condition to drive, what could become an issue if you require a rental car.

Always watch out for what you say and review everything you write down. Insurance adjusters will have access to everything you or your doctor writes. They will be looking for any signs of preexisting injuries, or any sign to show that the injury was not that painful.

Your doctor will be a very nice person; she will be asking you very nicely what happened, how it happened, and how and where you are injured. She is not looking out for the insurance company, but, she will write very thing you say believe me. Here you must tell them everything that you think it might be wrong with you.

Once this information becomes part of the record, it will be nearly impossible to correct a report that was incomplete. I never saw an emergency room physician change his original report.

Insurance adjusters will hang on to this information and this is what will set the tone of the evaluation of your injury.

The next thing you MUST ask for is for a Release from Work Request. Many emergency room doctors will give you one for three days, depending in the symptoms and the severity of the accident. This is critical.

The reason why I bring this up is because you will not feel the pain until a day or two after the accident. When the pain comes, it will be like you were beat in a dark ally.

Then it will be too late to go back and ask for this release. If you have this release, then your adjuster will see your injury as serious, and your employer will give you the time off.

The adjuster will pay for the days you did not work without much of a problem. The issue is when you take time from work without a doctor�s note. The adjuster will fight you to pay less for your day of work, and sometimes will decline payment all loss wages.

It is very important that you remember to ask for the Release from Work Request. It is easy to forget. There are way too many things in your mind to recall this. If you ask for this, it shows that you are injured, injured enough to know that you cannot go to work the days following the accident.

After the emergency room visit, should I report a claim? Learn more.

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