Virtually every job has safety risks, but some jobs expose workers to more extreme levels of hazards than others. In industries involving the development or use of toxic substances or other hazardous materials, workplace medical surveillance plays an essential role in mitigating injury risks.
Learn why medical surveillance is crucial for protecting employee safety and occupational health.
What Is Workplace Medical Surveillance?
Workplace medical surveillance involves analyzing employee health information to identify risks that require targeted hazard prevention to mitigate. In workplaces in which employees are regularly exposed to hazards, medical surveillance ensures ongoing monitoring of these workers to detect early signs of exposure or illness and implement prompt prevention measures.
Medical surveillance primarily involves the ongoing collection and analysis of data related to worker health and safety. Employers may analyze data from individual employees or from groups of workers over time.
For groups of employees, the employer can look for abnormal trends in health status that may indicate early development of occupational illnesses or injuries. This process provides a feedback loop that continually mitigates injury risks and protects worker safety.
Medical surveillance is distinct from medical screening, which is another important component of preventing injuries. While medical screening involves diagnosing and treating individual workers to ensure adherence to job requirements, surveillance is a proactive process that seeks to detect patterns related to occupational risks over time.
When Is Medical Surveillance a Legal Requirement?
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration requires that workers exposed to certain hazardous environments or substances adhere to a medical surveillance program to mitigate the risk of long-term exposure. Surveillance is generally required for jobs involving:
- Asbestos exposure
- Lead exposure
- Bloodborne pathogen exposure
- Hazardous waste operations and response
- Noise exposure
OSHA provides thorough guidance for employers required to use workplace medical surveillance. Different levels of surveillance are required depending on occupational risks and exposure levels.
Employers are responsible for developing a comprehensive medical surveillance program under OSHA standards. They are also responsible for footing all costs involved in implementing the program.
An effective and compliant workplace medical surveillance program involves:
- Ongoing surveillance of employees exposed to occupational hazards, including regular medical examinations and screenings
- Ensuring access to treatment for workers exposed to hazards
- Record keeping for medical examinations, injury occurrences, and treatments
- Continual review of the program to ensure effectiveness
How Medical Surveillance Benefits Employers and Employees
As an employer, many benefits of medical surveillance that make this a worthwhile endeavor. Here are some of the ways you and your employees can benefit from workplace medical surveillance:
- Ensure OSHA compliance: Implementing the necessary occupational health and safety programs under OSHA guidelines ensures your compliance and prevents the risk of fines or company shutdown.
- Understand the effectiveness of existing injury prevention strategies: Conducting ongoing work-related health risk assessments allows you to understand whether your current injury prevention strategies are effectively mitigating injury risks. If not, you’ll know how to alter these strategies and prevent employee exposure to hazards in the meantime.
- Identify hazards and risks in the workplace: Some occupational hazards are obvious, such as when workers handle toxic substances in their daily workloads. But others require deeper health monitoring and observation to identify. Medical surveillance helps you identify hazards before they turn into serious illnesses or accidents.
- Create a healthier workforce: A healthy workforce is a happy workforce, where employees maintain their jobs for longer and contribute to overall worker morale. Medical surveillance helps you minimize injury and illness occurrences in your workplace to maintain employee satisfaction.
- Save money related to workplace injury claims: Workplace injuries can also be expensive for your business, especially when they arise due to OSHA violations. Employee health monitoring and interventions can reduce costs related to workers’ compensation claims, OSHA penalties, lost productivity, property damage, training replacement workers, and other expenses.
Meanwhile, the risks of not implementing medical surveillance when necessary are significant: severe injuries and illnesses, steep fines and penalties, legal liability, and business shutdown.
Reduce Injuries and Maintain a Compliant Workplace With WorkSafe
Employers bear the burden of maintaining safe environments, particularly when serious workplace hazards are at play. Often, employers work with occupational health clinics to identify and mitigate hazards while ensuring legal compliance.
WorkSafe understands the importance of workplace safety and knows when workplace medical surveillance is necessary for mitigating risks. We can help you create a surveillance program that adheres to OSHA standards and reliably protects workers against occupational injuries. In turn, your business saves money and protects its reputation.
Contact WorkSafe today at 316-262-8800 to request your no-obligation call.