How to become an Ideal Occupational Medicine Clinic for local employers

Once you’ve figured out what position you’re interested in hiring, it’s important that you travel to their facility and inspect the interior. To get a better idea of how a position works with others, ask their staff, and coworkers questions about their overall work ethic. As you’re checking out their facility, you should be keeping an eye out for credentials, access, and proficiency.

Access

For access, you should make sure that their staff is recruiting lines within a reasonable distance from your clinic. You should also make sure that the position is willing to take on new patients as well as patients who are entering under their care as a Workmen’s Compensation case.

In addition, make sure that the physician you’re interested in hiring operates at the same time as your clinic. They also need to be able to take any walk-in visits and any urgent appointments. Lastly, they must be able to perform prevention consulting, occupational therapy services, and job evaluations.

Credentials

A position that’s willing to work under your occupational medicine team needs to have accredited medical education, as well as postgraduate training, a current and unrestricted medical license, a history that demonstrates a basic medical understanding, and overall strong morals.  

Make an effort to identify if the position has ever had a significant medical malpractice case or a record of severe or multiple complaints from the medical licensing board. The credentials that the position has should be verified through NCQA. The average physician who has privileges that coincide with the hospital will have this independently verified. In addition, the physician should have a current certification that’s in their current field of practice.

Proficiency

Lastly, we need to identify the proficiency of the position to encourage local employers to use your clinic for their occupational medical needs. To ensure that the physician you’re considering hiring is able to provide high-quality occupational health services, there are several pieces of background that you should identify for the care provider.

The first thing to check for is a documented history of past professional experience, work samples that act as demonstrative evidence that measures proficiency, work from any specialized coursework, and a continuance of medical education. In addition, the position that you’re going to hire for your clinic should have experience treating Worker’s Compensation injuries consistently.

They should also be familiar with the overall system of Worker’s Compensation, along with an understanding of treating Worker’s Compensation injuries. Identifying membership in the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine or Worker’s Compensation committee in a state or county committee can prove the physician’s experience and competency. 

Versatility This physician should also have a solid comprehension of the family medical leave act, as well as the Americans with disabilities act, as these two laws are commonly implemented in workplace injury cases. The physician should be proficient in understanding protocols and procedures that are required to work on cases in a particular industry or in hazardous situations.

They should have experience working with cases related to injuries, skin burns, rashes, musculoskeletal conditions, and other common injuries associated with Workmen’s Compensation cases surrounding your location. If the employers in your area are in a heavily regulated industry or a hazardous industry, this medical professional has to be familiar with the Medical Review Officer regulatory requirements, the Department of Transportation regulatory requirements, surveillance programs that have been mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as a regulation of hazardous materials.

In addition, if you’ve decided that your occupational medicine clinic will be providing impairment ratings or independent medical examinations, the physician should be proficient in producing high-quality written reports, be comfortable with testifying in court, and in providing unbiased conclusions.   

Additional Criteria for Occupational Medicine Providers

Another great criterion to look for is a Referral relationship. Does the occupational medicine physician have a great rapport with specialists in the local area? They might have to recommend patients to a specialist for further investigation. This will not only help reduce the overall cost of operation for your clinic but will also encourage faster recovery time patients.

A quick summary of desired eligibility for Occupational Medicine Provider:

• Appropriate credentials
• Relevant experience
• Aim to minimize the need for life disruptions, as well as work disability, for the patients within their care
• Provide relevant information and guidance to employers for Workmen’s Compensation issues.
• Good Referral relationship