Occupational Medicine & Workers' Compensation
Employers need employees that are healthy. That is the goal of both occupational medicine and workers' compensation. Urgent care centers often play a part in both medical areas.
Occupational medicine
The goal of occupational medicine is to promote and support the health of workers in any occupation. This includes preventing injuries related to work and protection from risks that could cause injury in the work place. One part of this is to screen potential employees before the company hires them to make sure they are ready to do the job.
Urgent care centers perform a couple of critical occupational medicine activities:
- Pre-employment physicals - Some jobs require employees to be in good physical condition. This physical helps determine that.
- Drug screenings - Many employers require potential employees to go through drug screening to verify they are not actively using drugs or alcohol.
Workers' Compensation
Injuries happen on the job. That is where workers' compensation comes in. By law, most employers must carry workers' compensation insurance to cover their employees. This insurance helps cover any medical costs related to the injury and helps to cover lost wages for when the employee is out of work due to the injury.
Urgent care centers offer workers' compensation care:
- First line care for work place injuries - Unless an injury is life-threatening, many employers send their injured workers to an urgent care center for evaluation. The center can do initial evaluations, stabilize the injured person, perform diagnostics, and transfer to higher care as needed.
- Drug and alcohol screening - The employer will need to know if the injured worker was using drugs or on alcohol when the injury occurred. That is standard procedure after any work-related injury.
- Return to work evaluations - After an employee heals from an injury, some employers need official confirmation that he or she is ready to resume their normal duties. An urgent care center can do a return-to-work evaluation for this purpose.
If you need an urgent care center to handle your occupational medicine and workers' compensation needs, contact us here at OC Urgent Care. We work with employers of all sizes to handle their immediate needs. Call us today.