We do our assessments in a different manner.

At or New Hire Orientation we have break out sessions in the afternoon. Some new employees come to us, some go to computer training and some go to benefits and we rotate.  At that time we have a number of people come in and we have stations set up around the room. New employees are asked to bring with them any immunization records that they have. We have a station for new employees to meet with a nurse to evaluate their health history and needs such as immunizations, titers TB testing etc. We also have stations for the  lab draws for titers and TB testing (we use the Quant Gold), a station for hand washing (mandatory for all employees and volunteers) a fit testing station, and an immunization station. If someone needs hearing we schedule that off site as there are very little positions that need it. 

Our drug testing is done pre-employment along with the background check.

While this ties up our people for an afternoon every other week we have found that it requires much less time and insures that we are not doing unnecessary assessments on people who do not get hired. Anyone who doesn’t pass a drug test we don’t waste time on. Anyone who declines the offer in the process doesn’t get an assessment therefore we don’t end up doing titers and TB testing on someone just to have them go somewhere else.

 

We hire about 60 people every other week and this process takes about 3 ½ hours. We staff it with 9-10 people and get everything at one time. We do not need to set up special times for scheduling and have disputes over if this time should be paid time to the candidate.  It is a win for the organization and for us as we don’t end up with records on people that are not employed.  We also do not have a designated Occupational Health clinic but if we did we would send those that need hearing testing to that location after hire.

 

 

I know that this may not increase your visits but maybe an “assembly line” type of visits at certain times for new hires might help. I hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

Would appreciate some input into how preplacement assessments are being done…..where?  and what is being included.  We are a large hospital system and have one large employee occupational health clinic to do the majority of preplacement assessments.  The assessments are done by RNs and include

health history

vision screening

immunizations…measles mumps rubella and varicella vaccine or titer

drug screen

hep B vaccine admin or declination   we offer hep B to all employees

screening for other regulatory requirements…..hearing conservation, chemo requirements, etc

fit testing

 

We are looking for ways to streamline our process, which now takes approximately 45 minutes, and create more openings in our clinic.

Thanks for any ideas you have, I appreciate your time.

 

Pam

 

 

Pamela Schwindt, RN BSN

Employee Occupational Health Services Manager

AHC | Arnett | Ball | North | West |

IU Health Physicians

1633 Capitol

Indianapolis, IN  46202

Telephone          317-962-8244

Fax                         317-962-8349

eohs@iuhealth.org