The procedure went well, and the doctor prescribed several months of physical therapy. When Able arrived at the therapist's office for his first appointment, the case manager once again had not sent the paperwork. As with the doctor, the physical therapist performed the treatment anyway. Repeated phone calls and faxes by the doctor, the patient, and the therapist to the case manager eventually resulted in receipt of the required forms, albeit several days late.

As healing progressed, Able's employer assigned light-duty work: answering phone calls in a windowless room, not the most stimulating work for a type-A, first-responder personality. Able dutifully did phone-duty for a few weeks, then decided to whittle down his stockpiled vacation time in lieu of more hours in the windowless room.

My grade for Able's experience? Medical and health-care providers = A+. Employer = C (no supervisor called during recovery; light-duty work was mind-numbing). Case manager = F.

Hourly employee Baker is retired military special forces, now employed in a county school system. If there is a type A+ personality, this is it. Malingering is not in his vocabulary. Pain? Please.

He suffered a foot/ankle injury while walking the school grounds with his boss. His employer sent him to a physician who, it was later determined, misdiagnosed the injury. A change of doctors, another diagnosis, and subsequent treatment did not bring relief.

After eight months of increasingly contentious communications with the insurance company, case manager, and medical providers, Baker hired an attorney. It took another year-and-a-half of depositions and hearings before authorization was issued for what hopefully is Baker's last surgery. The surgery was performed just before Christmas. The prognosis for recovery at this point is good.

Grade: Medical and health-care providers = F, F, A (the first doctor erroneously diagnosed a sprained foot; the second doctor erroneously diagnosed a broken foot; the third doctor — secured through Baker's attorney — diagnosed ligament damage and recommended surgery). Employer = F. Case manager = F.

Taking these two cases as “teachable moments,” as our president would say, they prove once again that you can have all the rules and regulations in the world, but a successful workers' compensation program ultimately comes down to how well people in the system perform their jobs.