Sustainability & Risk/ Health & Safety / Objectives

Safety Officers Monitoring Medical Condition of Employees

Objective

The health and well-being of its employees is of paramount concern for any company or organization. To promote a safe and healthy work environment, safety officers must monitor the medical status of employees on several fronts. Safety officers must:

  • determine that an employee is in proper health to perform their assigned work. For example, a position may require that employees have yearly physical exams to verify that they are physically able to perform job-related tasks such as heavy lifting or operating machinery. Similarly, they may need to take an eye exam to drive a company-owned vehicle. In the case that the employee does not meet the physical requirements, they may be jeopardizing their own safety, as well as that of their co-workers, and may need to be assigned to a new position.
  • ensure that the employee's health is not being adversely affected by their job . Over time, exposure to conditions at a work site can possibly affect the health of employees. Safety officers need to monitor the health of their employees for signs of job-related medical conditions. For example, employees may be required to take a hearing exam to be sure that loud conditions on the job are not affecting their hearing, or they may need to submit a blood sample to be sure that they are not absorbing into their body harmful industrial chemicals from the work site. If job-related medical issues are found , the safety officer can investigate the job conditions an make necessary improvements. By regularly monitoring the health of employees, safety officers can determine issues early on and work to resolve them before they cause permanent damage to employees.
  • monitor an employee's recovery from injuries sustained on the job. If a workplace mishap (an incident ) occurs and an employee is injured on the job, the safety officer must monitor the employee's physical condition until the injury is fully healed or the determination of a permanent injury is made. Documenting an injury sustained on the job is required not only for filing OSHA reports, disability claims, and worker compensation settlements, but also to ensure that the employee is in proper medical condition to return to their job after the accident.

Failure to keep track of routine and incident-related medical issues can lead to unsafe conditions that jeopardize the safety of all employees.  Moreover, OSHA and similar governing agencies require complete and thorough reporting on job-related medical issues and organizations that fail to do so are subject to penalties and fines.

Solution

To meet these reporting and tracking needs, the Health & Safety application provides safety officers with an automated system to manage the many details of routine and accident-related medical monitoring .

First, the safety manager enters the details of the standard medical exams required by employees at the site, and can upload into the Archibus document library documents such as exam check lists.

For each particular type of work--as well as for specific medical issues for individual employees, such as work-related injuries--safety officers can use the Archibus system to define the required medical monitoring and set up a schedule for its execution.

Once the medical exam occurs, the safety officer can update the system with its details and upload the physician's report. If the medical exam reveals that the employee cannot safely perform their regular tasks, the safety officer can set up a work restriction and link this to the supporting medical exam. This provides an important audit trail of how the company reacts to employee health issues and injuries sustained on the job. This type of medical documentation can be vital for proving compliance with government regulations, providing an audit trail for industry investigations, or settling disability claims.

From the employees' point of view, the Health & Safety system helps them stay abreast of upcoming medical monitoring events by providing:

Procedures

Define Medical Monitoring Events for an Employee and Schedule Them

  1. Define the types medical monitoring required by the employees at your site with the Background Data / Define Medical Monitoring task .
  2. In order to assign medical monitoring by job type (work category), the safety officer must first:
  1. With work category information established, schedule medical monitoring for an employee via their work categories .
  2. Perhaps an employee requires additional, specific medical monitoring that is not part of the work categories' medical monitoring requirements; for example, an employee suffers from asthma and must have a quarterly medical exam, not just a yearly one as required by his work categories. For these cases, you must schedule medical monitoring for an employee .

Document the Completion of a Medical Monitoring Event

When the medical event (defined with above schedule procedure) occurs, the safety officer documents its details in the system, and uploads any related documents, such as the physician's report. See Enter the Details of a Medical Event.

If the medical exam finds that the employee should be restricted from performing their regular tasks, the safety officer can enter a work restriction. See Enter Work Restrictions that were Determined as Part of Medical Monitoring Events .

Create a Medical Monitoring Event in Response to a Workplace Accident

When a workplace accident occurs that results in employee injury, the safety officer can schedule medical events to monitor the injury through final healing. See Entering Employee-Specific Response to an Incident .