For home health care businesses, it’s important to have a number of insurance plans including home health business insurance and home health care liability insurance, but one of the most important insurances to have is home health workers compensation insurance. Home health care workers are 50% more likely to experience an injury while on the job than hospital workers, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Home health care workers are more likely to experience injury because they are in an unfamiliar environment for most of their work day. While the patients in hospitals come and go and change rooms, the actual setup of a hospital or doctor’s office typically remains static in terms of the positioning of rooms, equipment, and offices. However, when the home health care worker is on the job they are in an environment dominated by the patient and they are at the mercy of the patient’s own organization and cleanliness.
Because of this, it is essential for your home health care business to have home health workers compensation insurance under its belt in the event that your employees suffer from injuries. Here are some of the most common injuries home health care workers are likely to experience:
- Bites and scratches from animals
While animals are not allowed in hospitals or doctor’s offices unless they are for therapeutic or medical purposes, there are no laws against having dogs and other pets on the premises during home health care treatment. Therefore, a home health care employee may suffer from a bite if a patient’s dog becomes territorial or protective.
The same is true for cats. Cats can become hostile if they feel threatened and oftentimes a scratch from their claws can be as dangerous as a dog’s bite due to the possibility of infection. The bacteria from a cat’s litter box can remain on their claws and so if a home health care worker is scratched by an aggressive or defensive cat they could end up in the hospital with an infection. - Car accidents
Another way that home health care workers differ from traditional hospital workers is that they often perform on the job transportation, which typically falls within three categories. The home health care employee may drive on behalf of the client to pick up an item such as medication or to drop something off, transport the patient from one location to another, and drive from one patient’s home to another while on the job.
This increases the risk of the home health care worker getting in an accident. And in the event that the accident occurs on company time, they may file for home care workers compensation insurance, which is why it’s important to have your business insured in the case of these events. - Trips and falls
Trips and falls aren’t only injuries suffered by employees in warehouses, but also may occur in the home health care business due to the unfamiliar environment of the client’s home. If a patient has moved furniture or has left something on the floor, the home health care employee may trip over it and suffer from an injury such as a sprain, twist, or fracture.
Additionally, because most homes do not have elevators, an employee carrying medical equipment for their patients may suffer from a fall on the stairs, which could also result in serious injury and the filing of a home health workers compensation insurance claim.
Home healthcare business insurance is important to have for your company, but it’s workers compensation insurance that is essential for any business owner who is responsible for more than one employee. Home health workers compensation insurance is more likely to be used by employees, as the risk of injury is more common in home health care businesses which work in unfamiliar and changing environments. To protect your employees from injury and your business from lawsuit, insure your business with home care workers compensation insurance today.