What is Medical Surveillance?
Medical surveillance is a program that monitors the health of your employees who may be exposed to hazards in the workplace. It includes Pre-Employment Medicals, Periodic Medicals, Exit Medicals, Biological Monitoring, Physical Checks, and Medical Testing to identify early signs of illness.
Based on the screening results of the medical exams, follow-up actions such as medical interventions and workplace adjustments are recommended.
The importance of medical surveillance & when it is required
Medical Surveillance helps:
- To ensure employees are fit for their job
- To identify early signs of work-related illness
- To determine if employees need to be removed from a certain work environment
- To ensure employees can seek appropriate medical treatment
- To show if the company’s prevention and control measures are working
When is Medical Surveillance required?
- When there is a risk of exposure to hazardous substances
- When exposure is likely to cause an identifiable disease
- When an occupational health practitioner recommends it
- When working in high-noise environments or with chemicals
What Are Occupational Health Services?
Occupational Health is a branch of medicine that concerns itself with the prevention and referral for treatment of illnesses and injuries arising from workplace exposures. It is dedicated to ensuring the health and safety of your workforce and focuses on employees’ internal and external well-being while they undertake their daily duties in the workplace.
Occupational Health assessments are helpful and supportive actions for you and your employee. As the term suggests, we assess an employee’s health with full regard for any work environment exposures concerning the work functions they have been employed to do.
Our qualified Occupational Health professionals carry out these assessments. From Audio and Visual Technicians, Nurse Technicians, Occupational Health Nursing Practitioners (OHNP) and Occupational Medical practitioners (OMP), our medical professionals are there to measure and screen your medical results and provide you with support and guidance to prevent and manage any illness before it becomes serious, ensuring that you are always fit and able to work. Our health professionals conduct occupational health assessments but do not diagnose medical conditions or diseases. If a concern is detected, a referral letter will be provided to the patient, allowing them to visit the appropriate medical practitioner or specialist, such as a primary healthcare provider, social worker, audiologist, optometrist, pulmonologist, or other relevant medical professionals. Diagnosis remains the responsibility of qualified medical practitioners in hospitals and clinical settings.
Your occupational health assessment results can include being fit for duty, adding reasonable adjustments for marginal conditions, being fit – subject to review with restrictions, and, in extreme cases, job modifications to be considered. Most outcomes are reversible, though, with corrective treatment and lifestyle improvement. You can have the opportunity to get back to your former health and continue to do the work you love to do.
Benefits of Occupational Health
For the employer
- Reduced absenteeism in the workplace due to
preventative and managed healthcare - Increased productivity within the workplace
- Assist in finding the best candidate for the position
- Increased employee retention due to taking an
active interest in employees’ wellbeing - Compliance with legislation (Occupational Health
and Safety Act 85 of 1993)
For the employee
- Improved work performance
- Reduction in health risk
- Education for employees to better health management
- Early detection system that can reduce long-term effects of illness and injury
- Medical treatment is becoming more expensive by the day
- Preventative Occupational Health screening helps identify ailments at an early stage, therefore reducing expensive treatments associated with long-term illness.
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Care Net Consultants is Your Partner in Workplace Health. Offering safe, efficient, and ethical services that positively impact clients and communities.
