It is undisputed that 24-hour on-call field nurse, appellee-plaintiff Mary Howard, fell in the driveway of her home injuring her ankle in the early evening of January 6, 2002. At the time of her fall, she was carrying patient reports for completion before the following morning, a pager, a cellular telephone, a newspaper, and a take-out pizza for the family’s dinner for which she had stopped on the way home. Contending that her injuries arose out of and in the course of employment, Howard filed a workers’ compensation claim against her former employer/self-insurer, appellant-defendant Amedisys Home Health, Inc. “Amedisys”. Following a hearing, an administrative law judge denied Howard benefits. The Appellate Division of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation “Board” thereafter reversed. We granted Amedisys’ application for discretionary review upon the judgment of the Lumpkin County Superior Court affirming the Board’s decision. Amedisys appeals, in three enumerations of error contending that the superior court erred in finding Howard’s accident compensable as arising out of and in the course of her employment for Howard’s status at the time of the accident as “on-call” and continuously employed. Finding that Howard was injured at her residence after concluding personal business and resuming the business of Amedisys, we affirm. In reviewing a workers’ compensation award, both this court and the superior court of must construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the party before the appellate division. It is axiomatic that the findings of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation, when supported by any evidence are conclusive and binding, and that neither the superior court nor this court has any authority to substitute itself as a fact finding body in lieu of the Board. Mayor & Aldermen of the City of Savannah v. Stevens , 261 Ga. App. 694, 695 583 SE2d 553 2003, rev’d on other ground, 2004 Ga. LEXIS 474 Ga. June 7, 2004. If an injury or death is to be compensable under workers’ compensation, it must arise out of and in the course of the claimant’s employment, OCGA § 34-9-1 4, such determinations as ” ‘mixed questions of law and fact.’ Cit..” Wade v. Ga. Diversified Indus. , 240 Ga. App. 225, 226 1 522 SE2d 746 1999. An injury arises out of one’s employment where there is a “ causal connection between the employment and the injury.” Citations omitted. Hulbert v. Dominoes Pizza , 239 Ga. App. 370, 372 2 521 SE2d 43 1999. The causative danger must be incidental to the character of the employment, and not independent of the relation of master and servant. The accident must be one resulting from a risk reasonably incident to the employment. And a risk is incident to, or is connected with, what a workman has to do in fulfilling his contract of service. . . . The injuries, however, need not arise from something peculiar to the employment but the injury is compensable if after the event it is apparent to the rational mind that there is a causal connection between the conditions under which the employment was performed and the resulting injury. Id. at 373-374. An accident arises in the course of employment under the Workers’ Compensation Act “when it occurs within the period of employment at a place where the employee reasonably may be in the performance of his duties and while he is fulfilling his duties or engaged in something incidental thereto.” Mayor & Aldermen of the City of Savannah v. Stevens , supra 697.
The evidence showed that Howard’s status as a 24-hour on-call registered field nurse and weekend supervisor required that she be available to respond to patient calls, by pager and telephone or by visit to the patient, at any time during the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shift she worked, whether from her home, the office, or elsewhere in the field. Further, as a condition of her employment she was required to prepare and submit patient reports concerning the home visits she made, such reports as due the morning after her visits to patients. Given what it recognized as a voluminous workload, Amedisys allowed its employees to complete its required paperwork at home as necessary and provided them a drop box apart from the office to assist them in getting it in on time.
