Abstract

Objectives: This report examines relationships between the acceptance of compensation claims, and employee and workplace characteristics, for healthcare workers in British Columbia, Canada to determine suitability of using only accepted claims for occupational epidemiology research.

Methods: A retrospective cohort of full-time healthcare workers was constructed from an active incident surveillance database. Incidents filed for compensation over a one year period were examined for initial claim outcome within a six month window; relative to sub-sector, age, gender, seniority, occupation, and injury category. Compensation costs and duration of time lost for initially accepted claims were also investigated. Multiple logistic regression models with Generalized Estimating Equations (GEEs) were used to calculate adjusted relative odds (aRO) of claims outcome, accounting for confounding factors and clustering effects.

Results: Employees of three health regions in British Columbia filed 2,274 work-related claims, of which 1,863 (82%) were initially accepted for compensation. Proportion of claims accepted was lowest in community care and corporation office settings (79%) and highest in long term care settings (86%). Overall, 46% of claims resulting from allergy/irritation were accepted, in contrast to 98% acceptance of claims from cuts and puncture wounds. Licensed practical nurses had the lowest odds of claims not accepted compared to registered nurses (ARO [95% CI] = 0.55 [0.33, 0.91]), whereas management/administrative staff had the highest odds (ARO = 2.91 [1.25, 6.79]). A trend was observed with higher seniority associated with lower odds of denied claims.