Does an occupational physician have a duty to carry out general clinical assessments?

An occupational physician is employed to be responsible for the overall assessment of workers' health risks and all work-related pathological situations which creates an unusual doctor-patient relationship. The duties of the occupational physician are also very limited as is their professional responsibility. However, the boundaries of the occupational physician's duties and responsibilities are not always clear. The purpose of this article is to answer the following question: Does the occupational doctor have a duty to carry out general clinical evaluations (not work-related) of the patient?

Searching for consensus among physicians involved in the management of sick-listed workers in the Belgian health care sector: a qualitative study among practitioners and stakeholders.

BACKGROUND: In Belgium, the management of sick leave involves general practitioners (GPs), occupational health physicians (OPs) and social insurance physicians (SIPs). A dysfunctional relationship among these physicians can impede a patient's ability to return to work. The objective of this study was to identify ways to improve these physicians' mutual collaboration. METHODS: Two consensus techniques were successively performed among the three professional groups. Eight nominal groups (NGs) gathered 74 field practitioners, and a two-round Delphi process involved 32 stakeholders. RESULTS: From the results, it appears that two areas (reciprocal knowledge and evolution of the legal and regulatory framework) are objects of consensus among the three medical group that were surveyed. Information transfer, particularly electronic transfer, was stressed as an important way to improve. The consensual proposals regarding interdisciplinary collaboration indicate specific and practical changes to be implemented when professionals are managing workers who are on sick leave. The collaboration process appeared to be currently more problematic, but the participants correctly identified the need for common training. CONCLUSIONS: The three physician groups all agree regarding several inter-physician collaboration proposals. The study also revealed a latent conflict situation among the analysed professionals that can arise from a lack of mutual recognition. Practical changes or improvements must be included in an extended framework that involves the different determinants of interdisciplinary collaboration that are shown by theoretical models. Collaboration is a product of the actions and behaviours of various partners, which requires reciprocal knowledge and trust; collaboration also implies political and economic structures that are led by public health authorities.

[History of occupational health physician and industrial safety and health law].

In Japan, an employer of a workplace with 50 or more employees is legally required to assign an occupational health physician. The assignment rate in 2010 was reported as 87.0%. This policy started with the provision of "factory physician"in the Factory Law in 1938, then the Labour Standard Law stipulated "physician hygienist" in 1947, and finally the Industrial Safety and Health Law defined "occupational health physician" in 1972. In 1996, a revision of the law then required those physicians to complete training courses in occupational medicine, as designated by an ordinance. Historically, an on-site physician was expected to cure injuries and to prevent communicable diseases of factory workers. The means of occupational hygienic management by working environment measurements, etc., and of health management by health examinations, etc., were developed. Localized exhaust ventilation and personal protection equipment became widely utilized. Qualification systems for non-medical experts in occupational hygiene were structured, and relationships between employers and occupational health physicians were stipulated in the legislative documents. Currently, the Japan Medical Association and the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan educate and train occupational health physicians, and the Japan Society for Occupational Health maintains a specialized board certification system for these physicians. In the future, additional efforts should be made to strengthen the expertise of occupational health physicians, to define and recognize the roles of non-medical experts in occupational hygiene, to incorporate occupational health services in small enterprises, to promote occupational health risk assessment in the workplace, and to reorganize the current legislation, amended repeatedly over the decades.

[Ethics and occupational physicians: ethics and mission required for occupational physicians].

The ethics of occupational physicians are considered from the following three viewpoints: (1) their legal standing and ethics in job execution; (2) ethics in research in occupational medicine; and (3) ethics in the 21st century and fundamental issues. We discuss: in (1), the contract types of occupational physicians and their independency and neutrality, the protection of health information and privacy, and the use of authority and the security measures; in (2), ethical standards of medical research in Japanese and international organizations, the significance and role of ethics committees, and issues characteristic of occupational health research; and in (3), occupational physicians and politic ethics, the practical abilities and ethics necessary for occupational physicians, and the practice and philosophy of occupational medicine as an art. These considerations suggest that occupational physicians, who have a special status based on the governmental policy of the occupational physician system, should develop an ethical consciousness at the core of their duties and perform their mission with responsibility to employees and employers, all of whom are Japanese citizens. Finally, we propose that the ultimate mission of occupational physicians is "to practice occupational medicine as a branch of the humanities."

[Prevention and control of substance abuse in the workplace: a new and significant opportunity for the occupational physician]. / La prevenzione ed il controllo dell'assunzione di sostanze psicotrope o stupefacenti nei luoghi di lavoro: una nuova ed importante opportunità per i medici del lavoro.

OBJECTIVES: Substance abuse is nowadays a recurrent theme in the daily practice of occupational physicians (OP), mainly owing to recent legislation prescribing mandatory assessments for workers performing job tasks involving danger to third parties. While some degree of bureaucracy is inevitable and legislation seems to be inclined towards deterrence, it is recommended to take advantage of the opportunities offered for practical interventions which, in accordance with science and ethics, the OP can carry out in the workplace. Risk assessment, health surveillance, fitness for work, health promotion and cooperation in management issues are the areas of intervention required for the OP to fully accomplish his role in the practice of modern occupational health. CONCLUSIONS: We propose specific activities for the OP so as to highlight roles and obligations, based on available scientific evidence and established codes of ethics. Lastly, we wish to emphasize the overall role of the OP in taking on responsibilities shared jointly with all the parties and in the approach to the substance abuse problem in all workplaces with the ultimate goal of acting for the benefit of workers, enterprises and society in general.