Clinical activities in an academic hospital-based occupational medicine program.

Abstract

The objectives of this article are to characterize the clinical activities encountered by a large academic hospital-based occupational medicine program and to discuss their implications for occupational medicine residency training and the training of practicing physicians. Clinical activities from July 1, 1996, to December 31, 2004, were retrieved from computerized databases and categorized. All morbidity coding was performed using the same classification scheme and resource. The largest volume of clinical activities included patients seen for physical examinations, work-related injury and illness care, and substance abuse testing. The most frequently encountered workers' compensation cases were musculoskeletal. Although medical surveillance examinations, toxic exposure assessments, and other specialty services were available, the demand for such services was relatively low.