Your responsibilities as a treating health provider
If you’re a provider treating a patient with a work-related injury, their insurer will work with you to ensure the patient receives the right level of treatment to support their recovery and return to work.
What are my responsibilities as a treating doctor?
As a treating doctor, your role is to certify and list all work related injuries, manage treatment and provide rehabilitation support to injured workers. This includes:
- emergency and clinical care of the injury or illness
- guiding the rehabilitation process
- assessing capacity for work and providing work capacity certificates
- advising the employer, insurer, or workplace rehabilitation provider, about a rehabilitation and return to work plan
- referring the worker to allied health or other services, if needed.
Clinical framework and guideline
As a healthcare professional, you are encouraged to adopt the nationally recognised clinical framework (PDF, 1.29 MB) in the treatment of an injury. This framework is based on the following principles and is intended to support you in delivering the right treatment through:
- measurement and demonstration of the effectiveness of treatment
- adoption of a biopsychosocial approach
- empowering the injured worker to manage the injury
- implementing goals focused on optimising function, participation and return to work; and
- base treatment on the best available research evidence.
GPs can also refer to the clinical guideline for the diagnosis and management of work-related mental health conditions in general practice.
Health benefits of good work and rehabilitation and return to work
Research shows that getting back to work is a vital part of recovery that benefits the health and wellbeing of the injured worker. Your treatment programs should help workers get back to work as early and safely as possible.
Each injured worker has a tailored rehabilitation and return to work plan developed for them, based on the information you provide to an insurer. These plans inform the rehabilitation and return to work process. An important part of this is the identification of suitable duties. Suitable duties are tasks that a worker can do as they get better. They're usually time-limited and enable a gradual return to the pre-injury role.
It's important to talk with your patient about:
- what's needed for them to stay at, or return to, work
- the importance of self-management and staying active
- what suitable duties are and how important they are in maintaining health and improving rehabilitation outcomes
- how their employer is required to provide suitable duties but if they can’t, their insurer may be able to arrange host employment
- how the rehabilitation process can take time and is a step by step process
- how their capacity for work will be reviewed regularly
- any other concerns.
Improved rehabilitation and return to work outcomes are achieved through:
- regularly assessing capacity and focusing on what can be done, rather than what can’t
- practical, goal-orientated rehabilitation that focuses on staying at, or returning to, work
- regularly communicating with the rehabilitation and return to work team, including providing reports, feedback and updates.
Work capacity certificate – workers’ compensation
A work capacity certificate is a type of a medical certificate that helps insurers decide and manage workers' compensation claims.
You must be an AHPRA registered medical doctor, dentist (oral injury) or nurse practitioner (minor injury) to issue a valid work capacity certificate to a worker.
You must list all work related injuries or illnesses on the work capacity certificate.
More information is available on the work capacity certificate page for medical providers.