Hospital After Car Accident During Pandemic

After a car collision, the first thing you should be concerned about is the safety of everyone in your vehicle. Injuries can often happen, and the severity may not always be clear at first—the shock may delay pain or stop someone from noticing an ache or bruise right away. But it’s important to seek medical care right away if you are injured in a car accident, both for your health and for future liability concerns.

But with the world tied up in a pandemic, people may hesitate before going to the hospital for injuries or illness not related to the coronavirus. However, the emergency room is still there for your use, and contrary to what may seem like common sense, you should make sure you receive medical treatment right away if you are injured in an accident.

Is it safe to go to a hospital?

After a car collision, emergency medical personnel are usually called. If you or another passenger reports injuries or is so injured they cannot report them, the EMS personnel will offer medical transport, usually to the nearest hospital. Unless the injuries are life-threatening, you can decline medical transport and later transport yourself.

Hospitals all over the country became concerned quickly as the COVID-19 pandemic began sickening people all over the country, forecasting that they could fill all their beds with sick patients and not be able to care for other patients’ medical needs. That’s one of the reasons such drastic measures were taken by governments all over the country. Many people are also avoiding hospitals, citing fears of contracting coronavirus if they visit or are admitted.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use a hospital for emergencies. The American Hospital Association notes a significant decrease in admissions for serious heart attack conditions after March 1, which is concerning for the long-term health of patients with heart conditions. Heart attacks don’t stop during pandemics—and neither do injuries.

Hospital staff have developed protocols for keeping COVID-19 patients separate from general patients. Every hospital is different, but many have adopted protocols such as requiring staff to wear protective equipment and masks and keeping COVID-19 patients separate from the general care areas. Cleveland Clinic, for example, also takes the temperature of every patient coming into the clinic as a basic test for COVID-19 symptoms and limits visitors. You can still take basic precautions, like wearing a mask of your own and social distancing from other patients.

Get medical documentation

After an accident, it’s important to get an idea of the full extent of your injuries. For one, this is for your own safety—some injuries may not be apparent at first because of shock or lack of

bruising. Injuries such as a fractured rib or a head injury may take a little while to make themselves apparent, but they can cause serious pain and possibly take medical intervention to fully treat.

Having medical documentation from a hospital or physician is important in legal proceedings following an accident as well. Insurance companies will want to see proof of your diagnosis and treatments before conceding to pay for them, especially if the accident was not your fault and you want to file a claim with the other party’s insurance company.

It’s important to go right away, too. If you delay going, the insurance adjustor may see that delay as evidence that your injuries were not serious, and may argue to lower the payment. The adjustor may also say that you weren’t injured in the accident but that the injuries came from elsewhere. It’s important to get that documentation right away, and an emergency room or urgent care are great places to do that. A doctor will also be able to accurately determine injuries that you might not have been aware of, such as soft tissue injuries or internal injuries.

While the pandemic will likely go on for some time, more states are opening up businesses and more people are returning to work, which means more cars on the roads and more risk while driving. It’s important to drive safely and take precautions, but if you do get into a car collision, remember that it is okay and good practice to go to a hospital to take care of your and your passengers’ injuries after an accident.