WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF OH SERVICES?

What is the economic value of Occupational Health Services? To answer this question, we have to do Cost benafit analysis (CBA) as well as Cost Effective analysis (CEA). However, we will address CBA and CEA in future topic.
In one article titled: " Demonstrating the economic value of occupational health services: P. Miller et al ;published in Journal of Occupational Medicine Vol.52 No. 8 pp 477 -483,2002:-
According to COST model evaluation method, the expected benefits of OH services are:
1. Maximise health and morale of employees
2. Maximise performance and increase productivity
3. Minimise medico-legal costs
4. Enhance workplace safety
5. Reduce sickness absence.
So, inorder to evaluate any OH services, you have to weigh it on the above benefits.
Another way to see the economic value of OH services is by using CONTINGENT VALUATION method, which put OHS as a form of insurance policy, which individual business unit managers chose to purchase at different levels of cover. In this concept, the insured must provide what is called Willingness To Purchase (WTP) the OHS and Willingness to Accept (WTA) the Risk of ignoring and neglecting OHS.
So, let us check whether our company is willing to invest in OHS in order to have Healthy Workforce and safe workplace.

INDUSTRIAL CLINIC vs COMPREHENSIVE OH SERVICES

There is still confusion amongst some  industrial management regarding the difference in the provision of industrial clinic and comprehensive OH services. Some managements thought both are the same. OH Services are preventive health based services with the following main functions:

1. Management of workplace occupational risks
2. Management of workers health
3. Participating in emergency response and disaster
   management
4. PROVISION OF CLINICAL SERVICES
5. Record Keeping

DOSH has released a Guideline on Occupational Health Services in 2005 (JKKP GP (BI) 04/2005). According to this guidelines, these OH services are provided by a team of OH Practitioners which are consist of:

1. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH DOCTOR (OHD)
2. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSE (OHN)
3. INDUSTRIAL HYGIENIST (IH)
4. HYGIENCE TECHNICIAN (HT)
5. ERGONOMIST
6. SAFETY AND HEALTH OFFCIER (SHO)

According to OSHA 1994, only OHD can carry out medical surveillance examination.
On the other hand, industrial clinic services which is mainly curative based service can be provided by any registered medical practitioner BUT ideally this medical practitioner must have training in occupational health.
Providing industrial clinic service to the employees without providing  periodic medical surveillance examinations for the workers according to statutory regulations in OSHA 1994 and FMA 1967, is not enough to comply with both law. Without OH services available to the employees, it is impossible to achieve HEALTHY WORKFORCE, PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE.

A LESSON FROM WORLD CUP

World cup final is at the corner. It is between ITALY and FRANCE. What is the relationship between world cup and occupational health?
There are a lot of things we can learn from Football. The first lesson we should learn is how the well-known team like ITALY and FRANCE taking cares of their primary tool, the player. They invested million of dollars on each player including on their maintenance of fitness. Every teams show they really taking care of the fitness of thieir primary tool because only FIT primary tool can deliver a victory to the team. It is a good example of a win-win situation. Another lesson we can learn is a teamwork approach between management and the players. Inorder to succeed, this teamwork culture is a must either in football or any business. These are the two lessons we should learn from world cup or football game. With these two lesson we can begin our journey to have HEALTHY WORKFORCE, PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE. 

ERGONOMICS AND MANUAL HANDLING TRAINING

On 1st July, 2006 I joined a training session on Ergonomics and Manual Handling which was facilitated by a well known Malaysian Ergonomist, Dr. Jalaluddin Dahalan of ErgoConsult Advisory. The training session took 4 hours and involved 45 participants from one of the multinational companies of SamaJaya Free Industrial Zone, Kuching.
Dr. J stressed the important of Ergonomics in creating EFFICIENT and QUALITY productivity and protecting the SAFETY and HEALTH of the workers. The workers are the PRIMARY TOOL or HUMAN ASSET to any organisation.
A day prior to the training, Dr J and me did a 2 and half hours Ergonomic Risk Assessment at the company plant. Ergonomics as one of the important component of Occupational Health is wildly important in maintaining HEALTHY WORKFORCE, PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE
I have added Dr. J website to my blog link.