Workers' compensation file as a potential source for community diagnosis.

In providing comprehensive care, family physicians may utilize community diagnosis to analyze the needs of their local community. Existing data bases such as Medicaid and workers' compensation can provide an inexpensive source for community diagnosis. This paper compares the data from an in-depth survey of trauma in a rural community with the medical files of the Washington State workers' compensation insurance for the same time period. Only 45 percent of those patients claiming on-the-job injury when initially treated actually appear on medical claim files of workers' compensation. However, when comparing the categorical distributions for type, mechanism, and body part of injury, the two data sets are similar. Thus, workers' compensation files may potentially be useful as a source of data for community diagnosis.