Dana, When someone is hurt at work, most of what decides the cost of that injury is settled in the first few minutes and the first few days, long before anyone sees a bill. That is uncomfortable, and it is also the good news, because both of those windows are ones you control. The same handful of steps protect the business and tell an injured employee that someone is looking out for them. Those are not competing goals. The employers who get this right have stopped treating them as a trade. This month I am sharing three pieces that follow an injury through that window: why the first call only works when it is built into how supervisors respond, what keeps a first aid case from quietly becoming a claim, and why strains and sprains need more structure in their first week than any other injury. | 
