1. The employee must report any injury/illness, no matter how minor, to the supervisor as soon as possible.  Any delay may jeopardize the employee's right to worker's compensation.
   
   
2. The supervisor should send the employee to Health Services for the injury/illness as soon as possible  (extension 8111).
   
   
3. The nurse will document the visit in the employee’s file and prepare a state report (TWCC-1).  The TWCC-1 is forwarded to the Office of Human Resources and on to our workers’ compensation insurance carrier.  If the employee is referred for off-campus medical treatment and does not agree to go, but decides to at a later date, it should be reported immediately to the Office of Human Resources at x7507.
   
   
4. Within 24 hours or first working day after the injury/illness, the employee and his/her supervisor must complete a Supervisor’s First Report of Employee Injury form.  Each supervisor should have this blank form.  The forms are also available through the Campus Safety office or it may be printed off of this website.  It should be returned to Harold Lovejoy in Campus Safety for record keeping and investigation.  The victim must make a statement, if at all possible, and attach to this report.  The victim's statement needs to state how the injury/illness occurred, where, time, and what they were doing when the incident happened.  Please be sure that no medical records are attached to this Supervisor’s First Report of Employee Injury Report.  All medical documents go to the Office of Human Resources. 
   
   
5. When seeking off-campus medical service, the employee should not pay or use his/her medical insurance.  Instead, provide the contact information for the workers' compensation insurance:   Traveler's, P.O. Box 42927, Houston, TX 77242, 1-800-235-3610.  The provider may also call the Office of Human Resources for the name, address and telephone number of our workers’ compensation insurance carrier.  It is the employee's responsibility to verify that the provider is on the Approved List for Worker's Compensation.  The employee may access this list at https://txcomp.tdi.state.tx.us/twccprovidersolution/homehtml or by calling the Office of Human Resources at extension 7507 for assistance.
   
   
6. If the employee misses work for 24 hours or longer as a result of the injury/illness, it should be documented and reported to Human Resources immediately.  The first seven days of time missed may be charged against the employee’s sick leave balance.  If not enough sick leave exists, vacation leave may be used, or leave without pay.  The employee will automatically be placed on Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
   
   
7. After seven actual days of time missed, the workers’ compensation insurance carrier will begin mailing checks to the employee’s home to cover approximately 70% of his/her regular salary.  If the employee has a leave (VL or SL) balance, payroll will draw just enough from it each day to make up the other approximate 30% of the employee’s regular salary.
   
   
8. If an employee is unable to return to work after all vacation and sick leave is exhausted, he/she will be placed in a Leave Without Pay status and will be responsible for paying the university to continue any medical, dental, life, vision, disability insurance, etc. that has been in effect.  The employee, however, will still be drawing the 70% of regular salary directly from the insurance carrier. 
   
   
9. It is important to remember that through every phase of a workers’ compensation case, the employee and his/her supervisor should stay in contact with the Office of Human Resources.  The Office of Human Resources should be provided with the employee's work status reports and any other information that the employee or supervisor has regarding the employee's injury, ability to return to work, etc.  The Office of Human Resources  will be informed immediately when an employee returns to work after an injury (employee must have doctor's release to return to work), is unable to continue working because of a reported injury or dies as the result of an injury.

last updated: April 10, 2003