Staack v. Santiam Memorial Hospital

Claimant seeks review of a Workers’ Compensation Board order which she contends erroneously denied her benefits for medical services from her previous employer, erroneously applied the major causation test to deny her occupational disease claim against her later employer and erred by not “shifting” liability from the first employer to the second. We reverse on the medical services issue.

Claimant is a surgical nurse. In 1976, while employed by Santiam Memorial Hospital (Santiam), she filed an occupational disease claim for degenerative osteoarthritis in her right ankle and both knees. After…