Pennsylvania workers should be covered under workers' compensation insurance for medical coverage and lost wage replacement in the event that an accident renders them injured on the job. However, it is obviously the ideal situation that the worker avoids injury or illness in the first place.

Instead of working to compensate a worker after an injury, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration seeks to implement and enforce regulations with the aim of preventing the accidents, injuries, illnesses and deaths to being with. Part of this means continually revisiting, analyzing and adjusting safety protocol to keep workplaces free from harm as much as possible.

In this pursuit, OSHA has mandated a new regulation in Pennsylvania which is set to take effect March 8, 2013, which will require that all mines have defibrillators near the entrance of the mine and underground in the mine to assist a worker in the event of a heart attack. When such a medical event of this nature occurs, often the time spent waiting for medical assistance can be extremely damaging, so this new regulation should work toward saving lives.

Pennsylvania will be the first state in the nation to employ this regulation, keeping in line with the state's efforts at promoting workplace safety. However, in spite of these precautions, accidents and injury can still happen on worksites across Pennsylvania. In many instances, an injured worker will greatly benefit from retaining experienced legal counsel well versed in the nature of workers' compensation in order to pursue full and just compensation following a serious injury on the job.

Source: HR.BLR.com, "New Pennsylvania regulations require defibrillators in mines," Dec. 13, 2012

• To learn more about recovering from a workplace accident in Pennsylvania, please visit our New Castle workers' compensation page.