What is the Most Common Outcome of a Work Injury?

What is the most common outcome of a work injury? That is a question that psychologist Dr. Les Kertay likes to pose to audiences when he speaks about workers’ compensation.

He did so earlier this week during a presentation before the National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary (NAWCJ), which gathered for their educational track at the Orlando Workers’ Compensation Institute 76th Annual Conference.

The answers he received included ‘depression,’ ‘litigation,’ and ‘disability.’ But the answer he was looking for evaded the group. Kertay told the assembled that audiences often take some time to arrive at the correct answer.

And the answer to the question ‘What is the most common outcome of a work injury?’ is: ‘They go back to work.’

Personally, I knew the answer he was looking for, if only because we had breakfast together earlier in the day as part of a gathering of WorkCompCollege.com Deans, of which Kertay is a member. We had discussed this very question. The reality is that an estimated 85% of workers’ compensation injuries go through the process and return to work, with many cases experiencing no lost time at all.