Sanders, Billie v. Robinson Manufacturing Co., Inc.

2018 TN WC 59
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedMay 1, 2018
Docket2017-01-0710
StatusPublished

This text of 2018 TN WC 59 (Sanders, Billie v. Robinson Manufacturing Co., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanders, Billie v. Robinson Manufacturing Co., Inc., 2018 TN WC 59 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2018).

Opinion

FILED May 01, 2018 09:26 AM(ET)

TENNESSEE COURT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS

TENNESSE BUREAU OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION IN THE COURT OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS

AT CHATTANOOGA Billie Sanders, ) Docket No.: 2017-01-0710 Employee, ) Vv. ) Robinson Manufacturing Co., Inc., ) State File No.: 58982-2016 Employer, ) And ) United Wisconsin Insurance Company, ) Judge Thomas Wyatt Carrier. ) )

EXPEDITED HEARING ORDER FOR MEDICAL BENEFITS

This matter came before the Court for an Expedited Hearing on April 26, 2018, wherein Billie Sanders sought medical benefits, including a request for a change of treating orthopedists. Robinson Manufacturing Co. (Robinson) contended that the statute of limitations barred Ms. Sanders’s claim and alternatively that Ms. Sanders must return to her panel-selected physician, Dr. John Chrostowski, for treatment of her injury. For the reasons below, the Court holds the statute of limitations does not bar Ms. Sanders’s claim, but she must return to Dr. Chrostowski for further treatment of her injury.

History of Claim

Ms. Sanders’s right shoulder “popped” while lifting a 35-to-40 pound box at Robinson on July 29, 2016. She experienced immediate shoulder pain and numbness, as well as tingling in her right arm. Robinson provided her a panel from which she selected Physician’s Care, a walk-in clinic, for authorized care. The nurse practitioner at Physician’s Care diagnosed Ms. Sanders with a shoulder strain and released her to return to work under restrictions. Ms. Sanders obtained a full work-release four days later during a follow-up visit. On October 10, 2016, the carrier issued checks to pay for Ms. Sanders’s treatment at Physician’s Care, according to the carrier’s payment records. Ms. Sanders returned to her regular job at Robinson and continued to experience symptoms. She claimed that she reported her pain to her supervisor on several occasions, but Robinson did not file new First Reports of Injury or send her for treatment.’

Ms. Sanders testified that she reported her shoulder pain to her supervisor on August 15, 2017, when she could no longer handle the pain.” Ms. Sanders’s supervisor documented her recurrence of pain from the July 2016 injury but did not note that Ms. Sanders reported a new injury. However, Robinson prepared a new First Report of Injury and offered Ms. Sanders a panel from which she again selected Physician’s Care.

The records at Physician’s Care noted Ms. Sanders’s history that the symptoms from her previous injury went away until recurring approximately three months before the visit. The records also indicated that Ms. Sanders stated she did not suffer a new work injury prior to the current visit. After examining Ms. Sanders, the nurse at Physician’s Care again diagnosed a strain, placed work restrictions, and recommended orthopedic treatment.

Ms. Sanders selected Dr. John Chrostowski from a panel of orthopedists offered by Robinson. She completed and signed an in-take form before her initial visit with him in which she described injuring her shoulder lifting a box in July 2016. Ms. Sanders also wrote on the form that, following her previous injury, “the pain would come and go, then two months ago it came and never left.” She added that, “[a]s long as I don’t move it (work it) it don’t hurt that bad.” Ms. Sanders did not describe a new injury on August 15, 2017.

Dr. Chrostowski took an x-ray of Ms. Sanders’s shoulder and, following his clinical examination, identified findings suggestive of cervical radiculopathy or shoulder impingement. He ordered physical therapy. Ms. Sanders’s therapist noted that she made gains during therapy but with increased pain.

Ms. Sanders complained about Dr. Chrostowski’s treatment recommendations at her next visit with him. Dr. Chrostowski noted the following documentation of his conversation with Ms. Sanders:

Patient frustrated because she feels shoulder isn’t getting better. Stated they would like to see another physician because she feels she isn’t getting treatment adequately. [I] [s]tated it’s standard protocol to try

1 Ms. Sanders stated in her affidavit that she did not seek additional care for her shoulder because she was concerned she might lose her job.

> Ms. Sanders stated in her affidavit that she injured her shoulder on August 15, 2017, when she reached for a garment. physical therapy and then if that doesn’t improve patient’s symptoms, order MRI. Patient wants to see another physician and [I] informed her she will need to contact workers’ compensation and pick another physician from their panel.

Ms. Sanders and her husband both testified about Ms. Sanders’s dissatisfaction with Dr. Chrostowski’s treatment. Ms. Sanders stated the physical therapy made her pain worse, which in turn made it difficult for her to perform the duties Robinson assigned her. She testified Dr. Chrostowski “acted like she was not even there” during the second visit. Mr. Sanders testified that Dr. Chrostowski was “unprofessional” because he did not know what his wife was “there for,” stating he “had slept” since the initial visit.

Robinson’s carrier issued several payments for Ms. Sanders’s treatment after August 15, 2017. The carrier issued mileage checks to Ms. Sanders on September 17 and October 5. On September 20, it paid for Ms. Sanders’s treatment at Physician’s Care and issued a check for Dr. Chrostowski’s care. The carrier assigned these payments to a new claim it established after Ms. Sanders’s report to her supervisor on August 15, 2017.

Ms. Sanders never actually asked Robinson to replace Dr. Chrostowski. However, on January 2, 2018, she consulted orthopedist Dr. Todd Bell about her shoulder. Dr. Bell noted a history of the July 2016 injury but not an August 2017 injury. Dr. Bell injected Ms. Sanders’s shoulder with cortisone, released her to return to work without restrictions, and recommended cervical and right-shoulder MRIs to assist him in deciding a course of treatment. Ms. Sanders submitted an affidavit signed by Dr. Bell stating his opinion that Ms. Sanders’s “lifting a box... on July 28, 2016. . . and reaching on August 15, 20177,” primarily caused her right-shoulder and cervical conditions.

Ms. Sanders filed a Petition for Benefit Determination (PBD) on October 13, 2017, on the July 2016 injury.’ Robinson claimed that the statute of limitations barred Ms. Sanders’s claim because she did not file a PBD within one year of October 10, 2016, the date of the last medical payment issued under her July 2016 claim. In support of this position, Robinson argued that Ms. Sanders’s report of shoulder pain in August 2017 constituted a new injury; and thus, payments issued for that injury did not extend the statute of limitations on the July 2016 claim.

Ms. Sanders countered Robinson’s statute of limitations defense by asserting that her pain from the July 2016 injury never went away and the pain she reported August 15,

> The parties presented no evidence explaining how Dr. Bell received information regarding the 2017 reaching incident.

4 Robinson stated that Ms. Sanders also filed a PBD on the August 2017 injury. The parties submitted no evidence regarding the alleged filing. 2017, did not constitute a new injury. She argued that the payments Robinson issued in September and early October 2017 extended the statute of limitations on the July 2016 injury because Robinson issued the payments within one year from its October 10, 2016 payment. Ms. Sanders contended the filing of her PBD on October 13 is timely because it occurred within a year of the payments that Robinson issued in September and October 2017. She argued that Robinson cannot absolve itself from liability on the July 2016 claim by unilaterally creating a new claim following the August 2017 report of pain.

On the change-of-physician issue, Ms.

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2018 TN WC 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-billie-v-robinson-manufacturing-co-inc-tennworkcompcl-2018.