Driver Injured While Working – Is it a Personal Injury or Worker’s Compensation Claim?

Driver Injured While Working – Is it a Personal Injury or Worker’s Compensation Claim?

As my avid blog followers are already aware, I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with two Baltimore chiropractic clinics. In my clinics we focus on treating acute musculoskeletal injuries. We routinely treat patients with acute headache pain, acute neck pain, and acute back pain. While in some instances these presentations are insidious – meaning that the patient does not know where they come from, in many cases these injuries arise from trauma. Sometimes it is lifting a heavy bag of fertilizer while gardening and straining the lower back, in some instances it is a sports injury while play flag football causing neck stiffness, and in many cases it is acute trauma caused by a car accident in Baltimore. After nearly 10 years of practicing as a chiropractor both in Las Vegas, NV and Baltimore, MD I still enjoy the acute rehabilitation of traumatic injuries.

An issue came up late last week in my Fells Point clinic that I thought might serve as a good blog post. We had a new patient come into the office who reported to have injured while driving an errand for her boss at work. She reports that during her regularly scheduled work hours she used a company car to go to a hardware store and pick up supplies. On the way to the hardware store while stopped at a red light her work vehicle was suddenly rear-ended. To make matters more complicated, her vehicle was pushed into a vehicle in front of hers at a light.

My front desk staff is well trained to ask the appropriate questions of incoming new patients. We want to get all of the appropriate information gathering out of the way as quickly as possible so that the injured patient can focus on recovery from their injuries. In this instance, one of my newer staff members asked me if this type of injury would be considered a worker’s compensation injury or if it would be considered a car accident injury. It’s a good question, obviously, since it involved a car accident while working.

The answer is fairly straight forward – in this case, it is both a personal injury and a worker’s compensation injury. That is, when it comes to getting their injuries paid for, this patient has rights both under a personal injury (auto accident) claim and a worker’s compensation claim.

This patient had numerous questions. Which forms should she fill out? With which insurance company? Who should she talk to? Who shouldn’t she talk to? What are her timelines for filling out paperwork? The list went on and on…

I’m not in the business of giving out legal advice since I am not an attorney. We recommended that the patient speak with an attorney to discuss her particular situation. Interestingly, she told us that she had an attorney that she had represent her for an auto accident injury several years in the past. When she called and spoke to this office about her new injuries she was told that the lawyer did not want to represent her since it was both a worker’s compensation claim and a personal injury claim and the law office did not handle worker’s compensation claims. I was able to give her a few names of practices locally that handle both areas of law regularly and the patient decided to schedule a consultation with one for early this week.

Ultimately the practices of personal injury (auto accident) law and worker’s compensation law are complex and ever changing. While I am pretty familiar with both I wouldn’t presume to advise a patient on what to do. In this case we were able to find someone who could answer her questions and make her comfortable so that she could start on the road to healing.

If you, or someone you know, has been injured as a result for an auto accident whether or not you were working, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We would be happy to help you start feeling better today.

Dr. Gulitz

Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic

Celebrates 5th Anniversary

As my avid blog followers are already aware I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with two Baltimore Chiropractic Clinics. We focus on treating acute injuries such as Baltimore auto accidents that result in whiplash, headaches, neck pain, and back pain. We also treat patients with chronic neck and chronic back pain.

Some may remember that I left a successful practice in Las Vegas, Nevada at the end of 2011 to embark on a journey to create a great practice in the Mid-Atlantic region. I moved to Baltimore without any friends, without any patients, and without any referral resources. Heck, I didn’t even have an office or any equipment! Yet I was clear in my mission and somehow I knew we’d get this far.

I am pleased to announce that we at Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic are celebrating our 5th anniversary in Baltimore. We’ve come along way since the company consisted of me and an office manager. We have blossomed into a 2-location office with 15 employees. We are one of the fastest growing chiropractic/rehab offices in the great Baltimore region. We continue to rank #1 on google and Yelp! for Chiropractic services in Baltimore. I am humbled by the outpouring of support and encouragement from this great community.

I think the next five years will be better than the first five. Be on the look out for additional clinics (announcements coming soon!) and more clinical offerings as we strive to continue to stay at the forefront of chiropractic/rehab in the Mid-Atlantic region.

So once again, sincerely, thank you to everyone who has made this dream possible. My life has been forever changed for the better. I will continue to pay it forward.

Dr. Gulitz

Dr. Gulitz To Lead Panel Discussion on “The Ins and Outs of Personal Injury”

As many of my avid blog followers are already aware I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with two clinics in Baltimore City. My clinics focus on treating and rehabilitating acute musculoskeletal injuries, such as those typically experienced in Baltimore auto accidents and Baltimore work-related injuries. We also treat patients without acute injuries. Our patients typically present with a myriad of symptoms that include but are not limited to: headaches, neck pain, back pain, radicular neck pain, and radicular lower back pain, etc. Having been a practicing Chiropractor since December of 2008, I have directly participated in the diagnosis and treatment of thousands of personal injury/auto accident patients both in Las Vegas, Nevada and Baltimore, MD. I suppose that makes me somewhat of an expert on the “ins and outs” of personal injury.

The Maryland Chiropractic Association, in an effort to provide more value and support to its constituent chiropractors, started a program called MCA University. This program is meant to attract younger chiropractors in Maryland to attend a series of two hour lectures on a variety of subjects that they may not have a lot of knowledge about, in hopes of supporting them early in their careers as chiropractors in Maryland. The purpose is also to allow for some degree of mentorship – where younger less experienced chiropractors can reach out to colleagues with tons of experience to help them avoid mistakes and pitfalls early in their careers. It is also meant to drive membership in the MCA. I wish this program was available when I was originally licensed in Maryland!

The MCA University courses started a few weeks back with a course in physical therapy. The remaining courses focus on personal injury, med-legal issues in practice, practice building, and billing. Next Thursday I will be leading a panel discussion on the “Ins and Outs of Personal Injury” alongside personal injury attorneys Ross Albers (The Law Office of Ross Albers) and Adam Smallow (The Law Office of Adam M. Smallow). We will discuss personal injury from the perspective of the treating provider as well as personal injury from the perspective of the attorney representing the injured party. It is our hope that lecture attendees will leave with a very clear understanding of how to appropriate diagnose, treat, document and manage injuries typically seen in cases of Baltimore personal injury auto accidents.

Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic is proud to have Dr. Gulitz represent the clinic during this brief lecture series. We are glad that he is being recognized as an up-and-coming leader in the profession in Maryland.

New iOS11 Feature “Do Not Disturb While Driving”

As my avid blog readers are already aware I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with two Baltimore chiropractic clinics in Baltimore. We treat patients primarily with headaches, neck and back pain. Sometimes these patients just wake up with stiff necks and stiff backs, other times they are injured playing sports, and even more commonly we see Baltimore auto accident injury patients with these symptoms. Lately we’ve seen an uptick in the number of Baltimore car accident patients that we have been treating in my clinics. I suspect that is due to “relaxed” summer work schedules, vacations, and people wanting to get out and enjoy the nice weather we’ve been experiencing.

I came across an article on the internet that I thought was appropriate for the blog. It deals with the release of iOS11, apples soon-to-be-released next operating system. As people with iPhones already know- as soon as the next iphone gets released with the most up-to-date operating system, older versions of the phone are eligible to update their software as well. Typically there are minor improvements over past updates but once in a while major changes come to the phones worth noting.

When iOS11 rolls it it will have a new feature enabled called “Do Not Disturb While Driving.” Simply put, it is a feature that will sense through blue tooth if you are in a vehicle and it will purposely prevent notifications from reaching you in a car. These notifications appear to be only related to app updates, text messages, and social media updates. I believe phone calls can still come through (to be answered over blue tooth). The purpose of the new feature, as you can imagine, is to keep drivers eyes on the roads and focused on driving rather than staring at a screen.

Apple further notes that even if a phones blue tooth is not engaged it can tell how fast you are moving and it will automatically engage the feature over a certain speed (some estimates are approximately 13 mph). Sure, many people could argue that most traffic in Baltimore never seems to move faster than 13 mph, but I am sure Apple will have a work around for that.

For passengers on a bus or other motor vehicle that are not driving there is an option to press an “I’m not driving button” to disable the feature. That way your designated Pokemon catchers and text message relayers can continue what they were doing despite the fact that the car is in motion.

Apple had recently come under fire for not doing enough to prevent distracted driving. This appears to be their attempt at limiting how many messages can get through to drivers while operating motor vehicles. It’s important to note that this feature is not a “total lockout” of distracted driving. Any contact that is text messaging the driver can use the word “urgent” and it will bypass the feature and alert the driver. Additionally, any contact listed under a “favorite” can bypass the block as well.

At the end of the day, we all share these streets and we owe it to ourselves and our fellow motor vehicle drivers to pay attention and keep our eyes on the road. I appreciate that apple is making this easier for us (I too, have glanced at my phone while driving) but it will come down to the end user to determine if this feature has its desired benefit of limiting Baltimore auto accidents due to distracted driving.

If you, or someone you know, has been injured as a results of a Baltimore car accident, and require treatment for your injuries, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We would be happy to get your back to feeling like yourself again!

Dr. Gulitz

Baltimore Amongst Least-Safest Driving Cities in America

As a Baltimore Chiropractor with two chiropractic clinics in Baltimore, MD we see more than our fair share of musculoskeletal complaints. We treat patients with headaches, neck pain, and back pain. In many instances these are our friends and neighbors who play weekend sports and suffer back pain from sports injuries. In many other cases these are our friends and neighbors sitting at a red light in traffic before they get unexpectedly rear-ended by the vehicle behind them driven by a distracted driver. No matter the proximate cause of neck and back pain in Baltimore, Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic has emerged as one of the leaders in Baltimore City and Baltimore county in diagnosing and treating acute neck and back pain injuries.

Each year All-State releases a report of “America’s Best Drivers”. It lists 200 cities in America from safest to least safe in terms of: average years between claims, relative likelihood of claim compared to national average, number of “hard-braking events”, and it ranks all of these cities relative to population density and while accounting for climate conditions.

Before we get to the cities who fared the poorest, lets talk about the winners.

The top 5 safest cities in America are:
1. Kansas City, KS – with an average of 1 crash per 14.9 years
2. Brownsville, TX
3. Madison, WI
4. Huntsville, AL
5. Cape Coral, FL

Now for our “not top 5”, or “Worst Driver’s In America”:
5. Springfield, MA
4. Washington, DC
3. Worcester, MA
2. Baltimore, MD
1. Boston, MA – with an average of 1 crash every 3.6 years

So what does this data tells us?

It appears that the worst cities in America to drive in are in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Baltimore and D.C., the two major metropolitan regions we serve here, are amongst the worst cities to drive in in the country. I have written similar blog posts in the past regarding the previous years All-State save driving reports. These previous reports seem to indicate the same reasons why, over and over, the same cities appear to have higher crash rates and an increased likelihood of motor vehicle collision.

1. City infrastructure – Anyone who lives in an older city is aware of the tight city streets designed more for horse and buggies than for cars. Additionally, if these other top 5 worst cities are anything like Baltimore they have crumbling city infrastructure with tons of pot holes and that can lead to swerving and poor driving practices.

2. Population density – As the baby boomers and millenials each move to cities in droves population spikes quickly without the resources to account for increased motor vehicle congestion on the roads. If you think parking in Canton after 5 pm is bad, try parking in Boston around Fenway during a Red Sox game.

3. Distracted driving – When was the last time you pulled up to an intersection, glanced over at another car, and didn’t see the other drive glancing down to look at their phones? I see it all the time. A famous online though leader Gary Vaynerchuck recently opined that billboards are or will soon be obsolete because something like 60 percent of drivers are texting and driving. I don’t know if that statistic is true but it wouldn’t surprise me. This also would account for people driving with a cell phone in their hand – which is illegal in Maryland.

4. Poorly planned or executed mass transit – I suspect that NYC would have faired far worse on this list but for its well developed mass transit infrastructure. Although I think the Baltimore LINK bus improvements will help with congestion and traffic, an underground rail would alleviate some of these problems. I don’t know how feasible this mass transit solution would be in older cities such as Baltimore and D.C., but the point is where there are people in cars there are crashes. And where there are crashes, there are injuries.

That’s why the team at Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic is here to help. We treat injuries from motor vehicle collisions and car accidents all day every day. If you, or someone you know, has been injured in a car accident in Baltimore, and has suffered headaches, neck pain, or back pain from a car accident please contact us at (443) 842-5500. We will do our best to get you seen today. We provide on-site digital x-rays and we work closely with local medical physicians if you require a referral for medical care.

So put your phone down and drive safe!

Dr. Gulitz