Practical Strategies and Tools for Use by Occupational and Environmental Medicine Departments During COVID-19 Pandemic Surges.

OBJECTIVES: Occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) departments in healthcare institutions can be quickly overwhelmed when COVID-19 infection rates rapidly and simultaneously increase in the workforce and the patients served. Our goal is to present a detailed toolkit of practical approaches for use by front-line OEM specialists to address workforce management tasks during pandemic surges. METHODS: Specific focus is on tasks related to employee symptom triage, exposure risk assessment, workplace contact tracing, and work restrictions. RESULTS: Tools include strategies used by customer call centers, two decision support algorithms (exposure due to cohabitation or non-cohabitation), a color-coded employee case tracking tool, a contact tracing protocol, and documentation templates that serve as memory aids for encounters. CONCLUSIONS: These tools are created with commonly used software. Implementation is feasible in most front-line OEM settings, including those with limited resources.

Treatment outcomes of peri-articular steroid injection for patients with work-related sacroiliac joint pain and lumbar para-spinal muscle strain.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluating treatment outcomes of local corticosteroid injections for work-related lower back pain (LBP) as the current evidence for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine guidelines is considered insufficient to recommend this practice. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The authors conducted a retrospective study involving the patients who were treated with peri-articular and lower lumbar corticosteroid injections for work-related LBP at their occupational medicine clinic. RESULTS: Sixty-four patients met the inclusion criteria. The average pain level was reduced from M±SD 5.1±2.0 to M±SD 3.1±2.3 after the corticosteroid injection (p < 0.0001). Thirty-five patients (55%) were discharged to regular duty; 23 (36%) were transferred to orthopedics due to persistent pain; and 6 (9%) were lost to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Corticosteroid injections for work-related LBP are effective in reducing pain and enhancing discharge to regular duty. Nonetheless, larger prospective trials are needed to validate these findings. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2021;34(1):111-20.