| What
is Medical Surveillance?
Medical surveillance
helps you maintain vigilance over your business. The process is similar
to being a detective looking for clues. The most common reason for performing
a medical surveillance is because some component of your business falls
under an OSHA regulation.
OSHA
has separate regulations for general industry, agriculture, construction,
and maritime. If your business falls under one of these categories, then
you must comply with the specific OSHA regulations for that category.
With a few exceptions all businesses must comply with the regulations
under the general industry category.
Medical
surveillance also helps to maintain public health at your company site
with systematic collection, analysis, documentation, and dissemination
of disease data which falls under OSHA regulations.
What
is involved in Medical Surveillance?
There
are three main reasons for medical surveillance:
- Primary Prevention--
eliminate the hazard
- Secondary Prevention--
detect early signs of disease before a worker is symptomatic
- Tertiary Prevention--
intervention when a person has an illness or disease in order to prevent
reoccurrence
The requirements
for a medical surveillance program may be specified by the OSHA regulation,
by company policy, or by a health care provider.
NOTE: Be sure that your health care provider understands the
surveillance requirements under the specific regulation. Give them a copy
of the standard, and a copy of your company policy.
Getting
Started with SWC HealthWorks
SWC HealthWorks
will travel to your site to determine your need for medical surveillance
by completing an assessment process. We will perform the following tests
to determine how your company falls under current OSHA regulations:
- Review work process
- Review toxicology
of materials
- Do these toxins
require medical surveillance?
- Mandated surveillance-hearing
conservation, pathogens, drug screenings, etc.
- Regulations which
are not mandated but a good medical/business practice
- Do ergonomic
or other physical stressors require medical surveillance?
Under OSHA
we are required to perform two tasks:
1. Monitoring--the measurement of a toxin or suspected toxin which
would be environmental (noise, air level) and biological (evaluate exposure
through blood, urine, or fat).
2. Screening--examination or a test with the expectation of taking
an action favorable to the employee as a result of the exam.
How
much do Medical Surveillance programs cost?
The
market for medical surveillance programs is fairly consistent in general.
Of the major health care organizations the costs are relatively the same.
There are some factors associated with cost that you should consider:
- Does your health
care provider understand the OSHA regulation?
- Does your provider
understand how the regulation applies to your company?
- Are you providing
too much or too little surveillance?
- Are your records
kept accurately?
- Will your provider
update you when the regulation or components of the regulation change?
- Do you receive
reports that you can understand?
- Does your provider
use a qualified laboratory and do they use the same laboratory each
testing cycle?
- Could my company
save money instituting a medical surveillance program?
After
you finish answering these questions you will see how SWC HealthWorks can
assist your company. Contact SWC HealthWorks today and let our experience and expertise help your
company become up to date with OSHA.We save you money in the long run, but before you spend a dime we will spend the
necessary time to review your current status and needs with you and give you a written proposal.
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