- Legal EditorHenry Dahut, J.D.
Henry Dahut, J.D.
Attorney - Legal Publisher - Educator
Henry Dahut is a licensed California trial attorney. Over the course of his 30-plus years practicing law, Henry has represented and counseled countless clients in legal trouble.
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Seeking medical care immediately after an accident is crucial for your health and any personal injury claims you may need to file.
This article describes the types of doctors, medical facilities & diagnostic tools used to treat different types of injuries suffered by accident victims in personal injury cases.
Medical Treatment Options for Personal Injury Accidents
If you are involved in a traumatic incident such as a traffic accident, the range of medical treatment available is vast. From pain management to surgery, each medical professional is trained to identify and treat your injuries, ensuring that even minor injuries are treated correctly to prevent long-term complications.
There is a wide range of treatment options for accident-producing injuries. Treatment often includes:
- Pain management
- Anti-inflammatory medication
- Orthopedic evaluation
- Neurological evaluation
- Surgery
- Physical therapy
- Hot and cold packs
- TENS unit (electrical stimulation)
Medical Facilities, Doctors, Diagnostic Imaging
General Hospitals
There are thousands of hospitals nationwide. Most are “general hospitals” set up to diagnose and treat most major medical conditions.
Nearly 20% of the nation’s hospitals are “specialty” hospitals specializing in diagnosing and treating specific types of medical injuries and disorders.
A general hospital may not offer the latest and most cutting-edge diagnostic tools or treatments or be staffed by highly trained specialists.
If you suffer from a particular type of injury, you might be better served by seeking a hospital to treat people with similar conditions. For example, a person with severe and widespread burns should be treated by a specialized burn center.
The following are specialty services and physicians commonly used in urgent care settings for those who have suffered severe personal injuries.
Emergency Rooms
If you were involved in an accident and sustained moderate-to-severe injuries, you might go to a local hospital’s emergency room for treatment.
Not all emergency rooms are the same. It will depend on the kind of hospital and the certification level of the emergency room.
If you were taken by ambulance, the hospital you went to was probably based on your condition and the proximity to the closest emergency room that can handle your type of injury.
In either case, an emergency room physician will have seen you.
Urgent Care Centers
Many major metropolitan areas have twenty-four-hour urgent care facilities. These centers are designed to serve the immediate medical needs of the patient. They are attended mainly by critical care physicians, registered nurse practitioners, and nurses trained in urgent care medicine.
The injury does not have to be life-threatening or dangerously severe to visit such a facility. Quite the contrary, if you are unsure of the potential severity of your injury, the urgent care doctor can assess the extent and nature of your injuries, prescribe medication, and perform diagnostic tests such as taking X-rays or ordering CT scans.
These centers ensure that all medical records are meticulously maintained for insurance claims and future reference.
In personal injury litigation, the defense will attempt to argue that the claimant was not seriously injured because they did not seek immediate medical care.
However, many patients do not receive immediate medical care due to shock or because certain types of injuries do not show up immediately but days after the accident. This is especially true in cases ranging from soft tissue to closed-head injuries.
Doctors That Treat Accident Injuries
Specialist care is vital in cases of severe injuries, including those sustained by medical malpractice or from serious car accidents. For example, neurologists can play a critical role in cases where a whiplash injury may seem minor initially but has the potential to develop into underlying neurological issues.
Types of Medical Specialists
The specialists described below are commonly used in accidents involving moderate to head and orthopedic injuries.
Emergency Medicine Physicians
These highly skilled trauma specialists manage patients requiring immediate medical care. These physicians are usually found in emergency rooms in busy hospitals. They can quickly assess patients requiring immediate needs—a medical process known as triaging.
Their objective is to stabilize the patient so that the right specialist can be brought in to manage the patient’s treatment.
Once stabilized, the patient will likely be referred to a specialist for follow-up and treatment.
Orthopedic Surgeons
Orthopedic surgeons commonly treat moderate-to-severe injuries in personal injury cases. These highly trained surgical physicians diagnose, treat, and perform surgery on people with broken bones and joint injuries, including nerve compression conditions of the spine and hip injuries.
Orthopedic surgeons have vast experience treating back and neck injuries, performing spinal surgery such as removing a bulging or herniated disc and repairing broken bones and joints.
They also have one of the most extensive training periods. Typically, after four years of university, an orthopedic physician attends four years of medical school and another four to six years of residency training.
Most orthopedic surgeons will then obtain board certification in their specialty after residency. Board certification demonstrates the highest level of training possible in their specialization.
Neurologists
Neurologists are highly trained in diagnosing and treating brain and nervous system conditions and injuries. They do not perform surgery; their role is more diagnostic. However, neurologists are often used to help determine whether a patient is a surgical candidate.
Neurologists also employ various diagnostic tests, such as nerve conduction studies and cognitive assessments, depending on the type of injury and symptoms presented.
Neurosurgeons
Personal injury accidents sometimes involve severe head and spine injuries. When this happens, a neurosurgeon is called into the case to evaluate and, if necessary, perform emergency surgery on the patient.
Neurosurgeons, like Orthopedic surgeons, perform surgery on neck and back injuries involving spinal cord injuries and herniated discs – which is common in cases involving high-speed auto accidents involving blunt trauma and resulting in a subdural brain hematoma, which is the bleeding and swelling of the brain.
Neurosurgery has one of the most extended training periods of any medical specialty. Typically, after four years of university, the neurosurgeon will attend years of medical school and then five to seven years of residency training.
After residency, neurosurgeons seek to be board-certified in their specialty. Board certification demonstrates the highest level of training within their respective specialty.
Diagnostic Imaging Tools
Different doctors require different kinds of diagnostic tools depending on the type and severity of the patient’s personal injury.
For example, it is common for chiropractors to order radiographs to determine the degree of the patient’s lordotic curve before performing a spinal manipulation on the patient.
Or for Neurosurgeons to order detailed MRI imaging of a patient’s brain before performing surgery on the patient.
Types of Diagnostic Tools
This section will cover four types of imaging tools trauma doctors use to diagnose accident-causing injuries:
- Radiographic X-Ray
- Magnetic Resonating Imaging (MRI)
- Computed Tomography (CT)
- Ultrasound Imaging
Medical Imaging – X-Rays
Traditional Imaging
Diagnostic imaging is the process of looking inside the human body through pictures rather than through intrusive surgery.
Radiographs produce shadowy images projected onto a sheet of film.
X-rays are still used as the first-line examination tool in minor personal injury cases, where doctors are looking for a quick and inexpensive way to view damage to skeletal structures, such as fractures.
The traditional radiographic imaging process, known as the X-ray (or radiograph), was developed nearly a century ago. The scientific community hailed the invention as a spectacular medical breakthrough. Finally, doctors can see inside their patients without cutting them open.
While the quality of the images has improved, the technology is essentially the same.
[Trouble-Tip]X-Rays Still Valuable Diagnostic Tool: Despite the age of this technology, radiographs are still extensively used to examine structural breaks involving bones and joints. While they cannot produce images of soft tissue, radiographs are still an accurate and cost-effective way to examine the spine’s curvature and other bone and joint structures.[/Trouble-Tip]
Next, we will examine radiographs’ limitations compared to the next generation of diagnostic imaging tools, such as MRI.
The MRI
The Next-Generation Imaging Tool
Diagnosing serious personal injuries often requires the use of an MRI. Also known as magnetic resonance imaging, MRI is considered the most powerful diagnostic tool for seeing deep inside the human body with fantastic clarity.
The Advent of 3-D Imaging
MRIs are often used in diagnosing severe personal injury cases where height, depth, and layered resolution of the damaged area are required, such as in cases involving blunt trauma to internal organs and structures.
Advantages of MRI:
- While the radiograph can produce grainy images of internal structures, the advent of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) offers a 3D representation of organs that the traditional X-ray cannot.
- Another significant advantage of MRI machines is that they do not emit radiation.
- The quality of the MRI image is not only three-dimensional and possesses superior contrast; the images of internal structures such as organs can be viewed in multilayered vertical and horizontal sections.
- The MRI can show the exact location and shape of a disk bulge or herniation and display detailed images of lesions and spinal cord abnormalities.
Disadvantages of MRI
- The most common complaint is the time it takes and feeling enclosed in an MRI scanner. One complete scan can take about an hour to perform. It is non-invasive, painless, and without side effects.
- The primary disadvantage of MRI is its high cost. A basic scan of the cervical and lumbar region of the spine can exceed one thousand dollars.
- The MRI uses strong magnetic fields to create its images, so people with implanted metallic objects or pacemakers are prohibited from having the test.
CAT Scans – Viewing Internal Organs
Cat Scans are often used in severe personal injury cases where high resolution is required, such as in trauma caused to internal organs.
Also called computerized tomography, the patient is asked to lie on a narrow table within the scanner.
Like an MRI, CT scans offer a very high resolution of the part of the body being scanned.
A dye must often be injected into a vein to obtain a high contrast of the scanned target.
The major drawback is the need for the injected dye, which is iodine-based and can cause an allergic reaction in some people. Also, having a dye injection may cause an uncomfortable warm sensation as it travels through the body.
The average CAT scan costs between $1,000 and $1,200 and is quicker than an MRI. The time required to have a CT scan will depend on whether your physician recommends you to have the CT scan with or without dye contrast.
Ultrasound Imaging
Quick and Portable Visualization Device
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, a significant benefit of ultrasound imaging is that it allows quick visualizing of the organs and structures within the abdomen noninvasively, including:
- Liver
- Gallbladder
- Pancreas
- Bile Ducts
- Spleen
- Abdominal Aorta
How Ultrasound Works
Ultrasound emits sound waves at high frequencies onto the skin’s surface and directly above the organ or structures being viewed.
The ultrasound waves move through the skin to the organs and structures directly below.
The ultrasound waves bounce off the organs like an echo and return to the ultrasound instrument, which processes the reflected sound waves into an image of the organs and structures examined.
Medical Technology Continues to Improve
Accident-Causing Traumatic Injuries
As technology continues to shape emergency medicine in personal injury cases, trauma doctors and urgent care-trained nurses will use more handheld devices to record and interpret their patients’ real-time medical conditions, resulting in more accurate and efficient diagnoses and treatment options.
Artificial Intelligence
Advances in artificial intelligence and supercomputing are now allowing images through knowledge-based AI readers to assist doctors in making highly accurate diagnoses and identifying available treatment options.
Telemedicine For Non-Emergency Consultations
Telemedicine is a new online process that provides real-time, non-emergency remote clinical services, including two-way communication between patients and healthcare providers.
Telemedicine now offers non-emergency consultations and evaluations through technology that delivers real-time guidance and access to patient medical records and test results. This allows medical specialists to diagnose, monitor, and consult with other specialists based in remote locations.
Online patient care now offers convenience and discount options, such as the ability to order medication and medical supplies online.
Bottom Line
After a personal injury, it’s important to make intelligent choices about your medical care:
- Getting treated right away is critical for both healing and your legal claims.
- Advanced tools like MRIs can really help spot and treat all your injuries.
- Understanding the proper medical procedures and the care required after an accident is important for your recovery and strengthening your personal injury claim.
- If your injuries result from a medical error, knowing how to navigate a medical malpractice case can significantly influence the compensation you might be entitled to receive.
- If you have questions about whether the accident and injuries you sustained should be evaluated by a personal injury attorney, the sooner you find out, the more informed you will be on how to proceed.
- If your injuries resulted from a work accident, you will likely need to consult with a worker’s compensation attorney.
