YOUR HEALTH CARE MANAGER
How Occupational Health Services can make a difference to your organization?
“A healthy worker is a healthy organisation� is a new adage that more and more corporates arefollowing today. Human resource is a critical component and a healthy workforce could mean a significant competitive advantage, especially when almost every other resource can be duplicated. Not only does it lead to an environment conducive to best performance, it has a direct bearing on the bottom line too, by also reducing absenteeism due to sickness. Occupational Health Services help in maintaining wellness at the workplace by assessing causes for ill health and suggesting and implementing effective measures to control them. The workplace can be advantageously utilised to make it an effective and economical setting for promotion of health ofemployees.Establishing Protocol Frequencies and Monitoring themMany organizations find it increasingly difficult to prepare a schedule when an employee should attend a health surveillance protocol and to determine which protocol is needed. Many different factors influence this decision, some of them prescribed by labour welfare boards. OHS helps prepare a integrated calendar taking into account both companyinternal stipulations relating to preventive healthcare and the continuous changes in the working environment that affect employee health. This ensures that each employee receives the health surveillance protocols appropriate for his or her personal exposure situation and unnecessary health surveillance protocols are eliminated. Thus saving productive time and cutting costs for the organization. Storing Medical Services Data A rigorous documentation procedure designed for high usability and for easy retrieval is followed and contains full record of all medical data for every employee. Regardless of whether the data originates from health surveillance protocols, general examinations, injury/ illness log entries, consultations or vaccinations. All entries are shown in chronological order, providing a complete overview of an individual’s medical history. An occupational physician can see at a glance all details about the person being examined including any existing diagnoses.
Maintaining Injury / Illness Log
Safety Regular sessions covering emerging trends and
Apart from fulfilling legal requirements, injury/ illness log helps integrate occupational health management and industrial hygiene and safety functions and also uses the data for accident assessment and management. Enabling identification of accident prone locations or activities.
providing relevant information and statistics on industrial hygiene and safety Specific areas which need attention within the organization will also be identified and appropriate solutions will be suggested. This will specifically help in H Recognizing potential sources of danger H Avoiding occupational diseases
Providing First-Aid Training
H Conducting occupational epidemiology studies
Training the personnel to ensure that adequate number of trained employees are available at all times. Further refresher courses on a regular basis are also conducted.
H Evaluating medical parameters, such as frequent occurrence of certain disorders and
Sharing information on trends in Industrial Hygiene and
H Reviewing general health statistics
Occupational Health is about assessing and advising both management and employees on the potential effect of work on health and health on work. In short, it’s about the balance between the individuals, capacities for work against work demands and potential health risks. Apollo Hospitals’ Department of Occupational Medicine provides a unique blend of diagnostic and prevention services for work-related illnesses. The department offers specialised medical diagnoses, high quality care and support services for the enterprises. The department also meets the needs of businesses and workers by identifying and controlling hazards and suggesting practical ways to reduce or prevent illness and injury at workplace. The department draws on the expertise of consultants specialised in the discipline of Occupational Medicine.
Dr. V. Swaminathan Senior Consultant Department of Occupational Medicine
Dr. Sudha S. Ramachandran Co-ordinator & Consultant Department of Occupational Medicine
What Can Apollo Life Department Of Occupational Medicine Do For You?
The Department of Occupational Medicine (DOM) of Apollo Hospitals offers a comprehensive range of services to ensure that healthy workers work in a healthy environment. Apollo Hospitals Occupational Health team will assess ill-health on two levels; actual, in the form of study of prevalence of illness, and potential through an assessment of the effect of work on performance. Assessments can take place at either an individual or organisational level and then systems are formulated to reduce future sickness and absenteeism.
How can your business gain from Apollo Hospitals’ DOM? Occupational Health is a multi-dimensional complex issue. While it is essential for fulfilling labour welfare responsibilities, it has significant financial benefits for the entire organization. Apollo’s team of specialists will help you ensure that you are following best practices and getting the most from your employees. Some of the specific advantages offered by Apollo Hospitals’ DOM are H professional service for all your employees from a world leader in healthcare H independent medical advice on how to manage work related ill-health H confidential, neutral environment where underlying reasons for medical problems can be properlyexplored H certainty that every individual with sickness absence records is returned to productive work as early as possible H positive experience of the medical process for both individuals and management H cost-effective intervention that will benefit your organisation H a defined role in improving the well-being of employees
Services offered by Apollo Hospitals’ Department of Occupational Medicine
Occupational health inspection of the workplaces: Inspection and surveillance of the workplaces to identify the health and safety hazards present in the particular enterprise; assess preventive and control measures that are needed, check for their availability and monitor their implementation. Health evaluation of employees: H Pre-employment/ Pre-placement examination to ensure that employees are placed on jobs suited to their capacities H Periodic health examination - annual/ biennial - to monitor employees’ health in relation to specific health hazards, to determine the risk of subsequent development of disease and to identify the disease in its early symptomless state Assessment of fitness H ‘Well- person’ screening for early evidence of chronic multifactorial illnesses including heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, etc H Investigations, diagnosis and treatment of occupational/ work related illnesses H Assessment of fitness to return to work after an illness or injury H Case manage people who are on sick leave and work with the hospital to ensure the earliest return of functional capacity and early resumption of duty H Specialists’ visit to the enterprise: Physician/ Cardiologist/ Diabetologist / Gynaecologist / Dietitian etc., to provide out-patient consultancy services to employees found to have some problems, to support and promote adherence to the prescribed treatment H Out- patient medical care through equipping the medical centre in the enterprise with trained man power and basic diagnostic and resuscitative facilities. The Department will also draw out plans for managing emergencies in the event of catastrophies that require special attention. Apart from anticipating emergencies, the OHC also is involved in preparing policies
for dealing with them at the local level and participating in disaster planning exercise of the enterprises. The DOM will also act as a resource centre and liase with Government departments, ESI, factory inspectorate system, teaching institutions and professional bodies . Apollo Hospitals also organises mobile occupational health teams to conduct a range of “Health Screening Packages” at the work places. Employee health screening for H Hypertension
like ECG, X ray, blood investigations, CT Scan pictures etc are transmitted digitally for examination and reporting by a team of specialists to offer a host of services including therapeutic, preventive, diagnostic and clinical. A team of local medical staff, supported by Apollo’s emergency specialist and intensive care specialist is on hand, in case emergency medical attention is required. The department also has a programme for health promotion at the workplace through health education by specialists. H Ergonomic Stress Study
H Lifestyle and overall health condition
An ergonomic program to help identify the risk factors which lead to musculoskeletal disorders and identify ways to prevent musculoskeletal injuries by changes in methods of working
Selective tests including
H Vaccinations
H Vision Performance Screening
Specific protection for employees through immunisations against Tetanus, Typhoid, Hepatitis A&B, MMR etc
H Diabetes Mellitus H Risk factors for Coronary Heart Disease
Acuity of vision. colour vision, phorias, stereodepth etc. H Pulmonary Function Tests Measurement of dynamic spirometry. Pre-employment screening of lung function to help in proper placement and periodic screening to help ascertain the degree of damage to people who are exposed to respiratory hazards. H Audiometry Pure tone air condition hearing threshold test for hearing acuity as a preemployment check. Audiometry is also used during periodic checks as part of the hearing conservation programme. H Bio chemistry and Toxicological tests Including assessment of exposure of the worker by measuring identified ‘index’ chemical in the body fluid as evidence of exposure. Additionally, worker health effects are assessed by measuring some alterations in the ‘normal’ worker physiology. H Telemedicine Apollo Hospitals has a full-fledged Telemedicine department that brings quality healthcare closer to you without the inconvenience and cost of physical travel. Test reports
H Travel Health Specific advice related to travel H Health Information Systems Developing ‘Hsys’ for storing and organising personal health information of individuals, monitoring health of the occupational group and assessing evidence linking job condition to effects on health of employees. H Stress Management Program Stress is a part of life, but often the number of stresses and types of stresses the individual has to deal with can be overwhelming. The stress management and relaxation programmes offered by DOM, will help individuals learn to cope. H Health Education Informative brochures, lectures, seminars, workshops and exhibitions on health related matters are regularly organised by the DOM, to promote awareness and keep people updated on latest trends
Corp. Apollo Life, 5th Floor, Life Science Building, Apollo Health City, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad 500096 | t: +91 40 2355 3450, 3676 Apollo Life Center, Door No. Old No.12, New No.16, 1st Street, Wallace Garden, Nungambakkam, Chennai 600006 | t: +91 44-2833 0300,01 www.apollolife.com