By Herb Sherburne
WSIA Training Coordinator

I’m pleased with the Industrial Insurance University’s presentations so far this 2006 – 2007 program year. I’m very thankful for the support of the IIU’s Board of Regents and the assistance of the volunteer instructions/facilitators that make these programs possible.

In October we presented our second web-based program. The session dealt with Time Loss calculations and 35 individuals took part. Jeannie Parr, Trainer for the Department’s Self-Insurance Unit, assisted in the development and presentation of the program.

As we have for the last three years we offered our Claims Training Series (Claims 1 – 4) twice, in the fall in Tukwila and this spring in Vancouver. Attendance was excellent for the first six classes. The last two classes (Claims #3 & #4) will be presented on April 5th and 6th.

We continue offering our Washington Workers’ Compensation Professional classes. Since the programs inception in 2003, some 95 individuals have achieved their WWCP designation.

At this time we are presenting our Medical Information course in Renton (18 attendees), Spokane (4 attendees) and Everett (6 attendees).  The next course in the series, Claims Management, will be offered in April 2007. We hope to have classes in Renton, Spokane, Everett and the Vancouver/Portland area.

For the first time we are presenting a WWCP class in a video-conference format. Thanks to the cooperation of the ESD’s in Renton and Spokane we have been able to broadcast the Renton presentations to the Spokane class. This is an excellent way to provide training opportunities to the smaller classes.

Our Legal Issues Workshop presented in October had 33 attendees. Gibby Stratton and Bernie Pratt again did an outstanding job of discussing legal situations in lay person’s language.

We are currently finalizing the details of a “Review” course, offered to Association members only, scheduled to take the Department's claims certification exam.

Please contact me at 800-736-7296 or at herb.sherburne@wsiassn.org if you have questions on any training issues.

Posted 23 February 2007

back to News