The Results of Medical Surveillance of Health Care Workers by the First Hospital Occupational Health Clinic

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Center for Research on Occupational Diseases, Occupational Medicine Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Sleep Research Center, Occupational Medicine Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Baharloo Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Aims: Health care workers are exposed to a variety of risk factors that put them among high risk groups. The existence of different health hazards in the health care industry and the costs of illnesses and the disability of this group for the society, has led to an increase in the importance of their health surveillance.

Methods: This descriptive study was done in the Baharloo Hospital to improve the occupational health of health care workers. The study included all the staff from April 2012 to March 2012 who were referred to the occupational health clinic. After hazard identification, an occupational health examination was conducted in accordance with state guidelines.

Results: In this study 653 staff out of 792 health care workers were covered during 2012. According to the final medical assessment only 6.6% of staff had medical limitations for their employment. Most hazards were ergonomic (99.4%) and biological hazards (87.8%), respectively. The prevalence of needle stick injuries was 18.8%.

Conclusion: Based on our results, less than 10% of the employees received medical restriction to perform their jobs. Due to the high prevalence of ergonomic hazards, workers are susceptible to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Also for the prevention of biological hazards and needle stick injuries, the use of appropriate personal protective protocols, training and vaccination is necessary. Finally, it can be concluded that implementing this system in hospitals, provides a safe working environment to protect workers.

Keywords

Journal of Military Medicine
Volume 17, Issue 2 - Serial Number 60
September and October 2015
Pages 73-79

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