Workplace Medicine Practices and Referral of the Employees to the Secondary and Tertiary Level Health Institutions

Abstract

Employees may need to be referred to health institutions for different indications, such as illness and rehabilitation. In Turkey, the procedure for referring cases from the workplace to health institutions is not fully defined. Learning the approaches of workplace physicians on employee referrals will determine the direction and content of future studies on this matter. This study aims to obtain information about the characteristics of workplace physicians working in ................ province and their attitudes towards case referral to health institutions. The population of the descriptive study consisted of workplace physicians registered in ................ Medical Chamber e-mail information network. The subjects were contacted through the information network of the Chamber, and an online questionnaire was sent. 58% of the participants stated that they participated in risk assessment studies and conducted field surveillance. 69.3% of the participants stated that they were able to conduct a pre-employment examination for all employees, and 78.4% stated that they were able to conduct periodic examinations on a regular basis. 52.3% of the participants stated that they referred patients with a preliminary occupational disease diagnosis one or more times. One-fourth of the participants stated that they could not act freely in terms of referring cases from the workplace. The examinations performed at the workplace and referral of the necessary cases to advanced healthcare centers are vital steps in protecting and improving employee health. It is crucial for the workplace physician to feel free to refer suspicious cases and to have job security against all possible consequences.