Gus Barraza wasn't happy about getting a sprained thumb on the job, but he was impressed by the care he got at the clinic where his company sent him.
He was clearing a sewer line in Duarte last month when the snake augur he was using hit a root and wrapped around his left thumb. "It was basically a sprained thumb, not broken or fractured, but they took care of me really well," he said.
Barraza was one of about 780,000 workers in California hurt on the job last year and treated under a state workers' compensation law that was overhauled in 2004.
Lawmakers, lobbyists and activists spent much of last year wrangling about workers' comp and its problems for seriously injured workers. A recent survey of workers highlighted the satisfaction of most people hurt on the job and the frustration of others.
A separate survey of healthcare professionals was not so rosy. A majority, including doctors, chiropractors and podiatrists, said they believed that the quality of care given injured workers had declined under the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The survey of 1,001 injured workers concluded that most injured workers received quick, competent medical treatment and were back on the job within three days.
The study was ordered by the state Legislature to gauge whether injured employees' access to medical care had been curtailed by the landmark workers' comp overhaul.
The results, said lead investigator Gerald Kominski of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, were consistent with previous surveys. "There's a high degree of injured worker satisfaction, and there does not appear to be a major decline since the last major study in 1998," he said.
But the generally upbeat report also had a downside.
Although the majority of patients -- most of whom suffered relatively minor injuries -- said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their care, 22% told surveyors that they were dissatisfied or highly dissatisfied with their treatment.
That means that 172,000 injured workers might have had bad experiences with the $22-billion-a-year workers' comp insurance system in 2006.
"It is a lot of people, and it is a large percentage," Kominski said. "It merits further investigation."
Employers, whose workers' comp insurance rates have been cut in half since 2003, call the survey results encouraging.
