ACOEM Medical Center Occupational Health Services Guidance

Thanks to the diligence of Dr. Mark Russi, who led the writing team, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) Guidance Document on Occupational Health Services in Medical Centers has been updated and published on the ACOEM website. This is the latest and by far the most comprehensive in the 35-year history of ACOEM’s published guidelines for employee health in medical centers.

The document represents a collation of pertinent guidelines, best practices and professional opinions applicable to the practice of occupational medicine in the medical center setting. It is intended to assist hospital-based occupational medicine practitioners in handling the broad range of issues they encounter when tasked by their employers to focus on the health and safety of workers in the healthcare environment. The 30-page document contains numerous hyperlinks which will be updated periodically to incorporate new information as it becomes available.

Authored by Mark Russi, MD, MPH, Lawrence D. Budnick, MD, MPH, Amy Behrman, MD, William G. Buchta, MD, MPH, Michael J. Hodgson, MD, MPH, Melanie D. Swift, MD and Lori A. Rolando, MD, the document is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Geoff Kelafant, who died tragically in March 2004. ACOEM’s Special Interest Section on Medical Center Occupational Health (MCOH) has provided the driving force for maintenance and publication of evidence-based guidelines in the field of employee health in healthcare facilities for several decades, and Dr. Kelafant was responsible for the innovative concept of publishing the guidelines online in a format which could be easily updated as new information and new evidence became available.

As Dr. Paul Papanek has observed, “The updated MCOH guidance document is superb, and it is likely to serve as THE textbook for providers taking care of hospital and other healthcare workers for a long time.”

Information provided by Joe Fanucchi, MD, FACOEM