At WorkMed Occupational Health, our healthcare professionals are committed to conducting thorough analyses of employee health problems to accurately determine whether they are genuinely work-related. In contrast to some providers, we refrain from hastily accepting claims as “work-related” without careful consideration. Our team of Medical Doctors and specialty-trained Nurse Practitioners takes pride in fostering open lines of communication with patients, employers, and insurers. M1 injury reports are securely sent electronically to employers before the injured worker leaves our facility, ensuring an efficient process. We also maintain close relationships with local physical therapy, occupational therapy, and specialty referral clinicians. WorkMed Occupational Health offers same-day injury management for various employment-related urgent care needs, such as strains, overuse conditions, fractures, lacerations, contusions, hazardous exposures, eye injuries, and burns. Operating from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, we are dedicated to providing comprehensive and accessible care. Additionally, we have the St. Mary’s Urgent Care practice and Emergency Department for coverage 24/7.
Occupational and Disability Management Consulting
WorkMed provides occupational and disability management consulting to employers, including designing safety initiatives, reviewing loss runs to determine cost savings, resolving resolve open cases, conducting ergonomic evaluations, and developing educational interventions to improve health and safety.
Case Reviews
WorkMed providers and nursing staff are available to review occupational health cases and help employers and insurers determine the best next steps with difficult cases. Our Fitness for Duty and Independent Medical Exams are especially useful for managing cases.
Claims Review
At the request of the provider, employer, insurance carrier, our certified Occupational Health Nurse will review cases to coordinate the care of the client.
Nurse Case Management
The Occupational Health Nurse will coordinate the efforts of the health care team with the goal of returning the client to pre-illness or pre-injury function or easing the multiple burdens of chronic and terminal conditions. This includes the mobilization of appropriate resources for care over the course of the clients’ illness, making sure that quality care is delivered in a cost-effective manner.
Program Oversight
WorkMed can provide program oversight to employers who have their own occupational health nurses by writing nursing protocols, providing onsite medical treatment, and offering continuing education and safety program reviews.
Pre-Placement Examinations can be customized to meet the specific needs of employers. The WorkMed team of professionals who perform these exams have completed certification programs that meet state and federal OSHA standards. These exams can include the following based on employer requests:
- Comprehensive medical history
- Screening of back and upper extremities
- Vision Test
- Vital Signs
- Focused medical examination based on the individual’s job requirements
Customized components that may be added to the standard exam include:
- Lifting assessment and functional capacity assessment
- Department of Transportation (DOT) physicals
- DOT and non-DOT drug testing
- Audiogram, including compliance with the hearing conservation program*
- Pulmonary function test and respiratory clearance evaluation (performed by professionals certified by the Harvard School of Public Health and in full compliance with OSHA Standards).
- Medical surveillance compliance to include chest x-ray, lead testing, asbestos, TB, hepatitis and other components as needed.
- Other individualized components, including simulated work environment testing based on the needs of employer.
*performed by professionals certified by the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing and in full compliance with OSHA Standards.
WorkMed’s Independent Medical Exam (IME) service can help you:
- Clarify causal relation
- Define current medical status
- Assess maximal medical improvement
- Confirm diagnosis and treatment
- Evaluate prognosis
- Assess work capacity
- Clarify ‘non-medical’ issues
- Conduct medical record review
WorkMed’s clear and concise written opinions are founded on a thorough review of the pertinent medical and scientific facts, available data and relevant peer-reviewed literature.
WorkMed’s Medical Director, Jonathan Torres, MD, MPH is a board certified and residency-trained in occupational and environmental medicine and has extensive experience in determining causal relationships and using evidence-based principles to evaluate a patient’s prognosis and work capacity. This expertise makes him uniquely qualified to evaluate medical conditions related to occupational exposures and musculoskeletal disorders. Dr. Torres understands the importance of a high-quality IME in managing the medical, administrative, and legal costs of claims.
An IME is typically done on long-term cases who have been pursuing medical care elsewhere and there is ongoing concern regarding the diagnosis, appropriateness of treatment being provided, length of care, functional capabilities of the worker, prognosis, etc. Typically, these examinations are requested/coordinated with the assistance of the employer’s Workers’ Compensation insurance carrier adjuster.
Often, employees have non-work related medical conditions that place them or others at a significant safety risk of injury if allowed to return to their jobs; this has the potential of increased liability to the employer. Our providers understand the ethical responsibility of duty to our employer clients in helping them to minimize liability concerns through careful evaluation of such cases.
Fitness for Duty evaluations can be extremely helpful to the employer in the following three situations:
- Evaluating the employee at risk of aggravating their medical condition by returning to work sooner than medically appropriate, increasing the employer’s liability.
- Evaluating the employee who remains out of work for their medical condition longer than necessary, potentially resulting in higher costs to the employer.
- Evaluating the ability and safety of an individual who is having difficulty working due to a medical condition.
WorkMed’s goal is to help employers decrease the likelihood of an employee having a longer than expected disability, as well as reducing the likelihood of injury when the employee returns to their normal work duties.
WorkMed’s testing and evaluation services include:
- Audiometric hearing tests for compliance with OSHA’s Occupational Noise Exposure standard.
- Pulmonary function tests and respiratory clearance evaluations for use when determining if an employee can wear a respirator.
- Blood drawing for compliance with OSHA’s medical surveillance standards.
- Urine collections for drug testing in compliance with state and/or federal standards. WorkMed can provide employers with assistance in setting up drug testing procedures, with medical review officer functions and by performing urine collection for drug testing.
- Post exposure follow-up in compliance with OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogen standards.
- Immunization needs. WorkMed can provide employees with immunizations that range from those that are more routine, such as tetanus or Hepatitis B to the more exotic immunizations such as typhoid, encephalitis and other immunizations necessary to travel through other parts of the world.
- PPD testing for tuberculosis.
- Ergonomic evaluations of work sites. Assessment and evaluation of ergonomics at a worksite are conducted by Certified Occupational Health Nurses and written reports are provided that recommend realistic solutions that can make a difference.
- DOT evaluations.
- School bus driver examinations.
We provide detailed, up-to-date prophylactic/preventative care for individuals traveling out of the country, including any immunizations, medications or prescriptions that may needed for admittance to specific countries worldwide and to keep you healthy during your visit.
We provide protection from:
- Yellow Fever
- Traveler’s Diarrhea
- Malaria
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Typhoid
- Measles, Mumps, Rubella
- Tetanus / Diphtheria
- Rabies
- Motion Sickness
- Meningococcal Meningitis
- Japanese Encephalitis
If you’re traveling out of the United States, you’ll want the best and latest advice on how to protect your health during your trip. We have the resources to clarify which immunizations and other precautions you’ll need to take to enter any country and stay healthy during your visit.
WorkMed will provide the immunizations and prescriptions you’ll need based on where you will be traveling and can also advise you on how to best protect yourself from contaminated food and water, intense sun, insect bites and accidents. Furthermore, WorkMed will provide information on the precautions you should take when traveling with children, and can inform you about the risk of theft, assault and terrorism in the countries you will be visiting.
