Occupational health considerations are a part of any company’s game plan. Hospitals, however, face unique challenges in this area. Their employees work in an environment which has many health hazards that are specific to hospitals, creating a need for specialized employee health software. Comprehensive employee health software should address the hospitals’ unique needs.
Employee health software should be intuitive, efficient, and it should cover all areas of occupational health practice in one easy-to-use, comprehensive package. Ideal employee health management software helps in the management, documentation and reporting of occupational health measures, necessary in a hospital setting.
Unique Needs of Hospital Employee Health Departments
Because of the nature of hospital work, hospital employees face health risks that are not inherent in any other workplace. They are constantly exposed to infectious materials. Some hospital employees work in areas that put them at risk for exposure to radiation. Workers in hospitals are required to have certain immunizations for their own protection. These are all needs, specific to a hospital employee health department. The usual occupational health measures also must be addressed.
Healthcare employees have need of care that other occupational health services don’t have to concern themselves with. These things include immunizations, which hospital employees must have, due to near-constant proximity to infectious materials. Because of this contact, or contact with other dangerous substances, such as radiation, sometimes the need for complex medical surveillance, to monitor for the development of toxicity, or disease as well as testing for these things, based on the level of risk inherent in the position. If an exposure happens, the employee health service must test the employee for the disease. If disease occurs as a result of exposure, occupational health services must treat the disease, report to the necessary authorities and compile the proper reports. All of this should be easily accomplished inside of the employee health software.
Management and Documentation In a Hospital Employee Health Setting
An adequate employee health software offers the functionality to manage, document, and report both the unique and the mundane complaints that present themselves in a hospital employee health setting daily. The system should designed to protect employees’ personal health information (PHI) and keep this information separate from the data that must be reported for occupational reasons.
Keeping all necessary forms for management and documentation in one place is one hallmark of a good occupational health software system. Everything in one place creates easy access to everything needed to complete an employee health encounter. The system, ideally, should employ a template-based charting system, which has functionality to handle all complaints, from the most simple complaints, with rapid-charting functions, up to the robust reporting of the most complex cases.
Template-based charting in employee health software provides an intuitive interface, that facilitates efficient, yet comprehensive documentation, and this translates into increased “face-time” with employees, and better employee health care. E-prescribing function is desirable, and a drug interaction verification system, is an excellent feature, which could prevent lost person-hours due to any potential improper drug combinations.
Another feature that employee that a comprehensive employee health system needs is clinical decision support, which suggests prevention and wellness measures to enhance employee occupational health. It would offer guidelines for management of disease in an employee health setting. The employee health software should maintain a list of problems for employees that includes any work restrictions that are in effect. When the patient interaction is completed, some systems offer patient discharge instructions, to guide the employee in their care and recovery.
Preventive Measures In An Employee Health Setting
Functionality to help promote health & wellness, as well as including wellness biometrics, to help guide employees to a more healthy state is desirable. The system would, ideally, collect wellness biometrics and keeps track of them.
Administrative and Financial Information in the Employee Health Setting
Comprehensive employee health software can facilitate billing, including filing group insurance claims. The software should be able to file claims to the following:
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Workmen’s Compensation
- Self-pay
- Employer contract billing
All billing and claim submission applications in the software can be performed with ease electronically.
With the extensive functionality of a comprehensive employee health solution, all of your administrative, documentation, financial and clinical information is right at your fingertips, in an intuitive, easy-to use-interface. Everything that is needed to successfully manage an employee health program is easily accessible. A system such as this can help any department save money through preventive measures, less training time on the system, due to its ease-of-use and time saved on the interactions which translates to more patients and better care for them. Any great employee health system provides start-to-finish coverage for every patient interaction, making occupational health practices run smoothly and efficiently.
Net Health is used by healthcare professionals in many different fields, including urgent care, occupational medicine and occupational therapy in over 4,500 healthcare facilities of all types. If you are considering employing health solutions for your hospital’s occupational health department, reach out to Net Health. We have a solution for you, no matter the complexity of your requirements.
