Activities of Private Clinic- or Hospital-Based Occupational Physicians in Japan

Abstract

The present study was initiated to examine the activities of private clinic-or hospitalbased occupational physicians (OPs) and to identify difficulties the OPs encountered in their occupational health service (OHS). A questionnaire was sent by mail to 557 OPs in Kyoto prefecture, Japan. Effective answers were obtained from 86 OPs who were private practitioners or physicians in hospitals and served as OPs on a part-time basis. Considering 3 h as a unit, a majority (92%) served <1 to 2 units/month. The leading fields of OHS provided by the OPs were general health examination and its follow-up, prevention of overwork, and mental health care, as well as support of workers on sick leave to return to work. OPs wished to allocate more time for maintenance and management of work and the work environment, mental health care, work area rounding, and attendance at the safety and health committee meetings. Difficulties were encountered most often in the management of mental ill health and overwork, and support of employees' return to work. Many OPs also reported difficulties with industrial hygiene-related issues such as risk assessment, and maintenance and management of work and the work environment. The present survey identified difficulties that were frequently encountered by private clinic-and hospital-based OPs in their practice of OHS; these include issues on mental health, overwork and industrial hygiene. The needs to offering OPs specific opportunities to gain information and skills in these areas are stressed.

Comparative study on the activities of part-time occupational physicians in Japan between 2008 and 2016: effects of the stress-check program

“…Reports on the activities and job demand of OPs have been published 7 / 7 by several research groups [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] as well as by a number of regional occupational health promotion centers [16][17][18] . Nevertheless, there are no currently available reports on the difficulties experienced by private clinicor hospital-based part-time OPs in their daily OHS or that evaluate the time spent by OPs in various OHS activities except for Moriguchi et al 19) .…”

“…The results of the survey on part-time OPs in 2016 were compared with the findings on part-time OPs in 2008 to investigate the effects of SC 19) . The questionnaires (in Japanese; for details, see Appendix quoted from Moriguchi et al 2013 19) ) was sent by mail to the 946 OPs in the registry early in October, 2016. The completed questionnaires were collected at the end of November.…”

“…The present analyses were conducted based on the 181 effective answers. The data of the study were compared with the data of / 38 similar survey implemented in 19) , if necessary.…”

“…1). When 19) . Classification by type of business of enterprises and [10. Health and hygiene education] were great as well (271 and 267%, respectively).…”

Working Conditions of Occupational Physicians—A Scoping Review

“…54%); (d) participation in coordination meetings concerning specific patients on a weekly basis was negatively associated with finding it 'not at all/somewhat problematic' to provide a long-term prognosis about patients' work capacity; (e) OPs seem to have a more favorable work situation in their work with sickness certification; (f) experience of sickness certification consultations as problematic once a month or less often, not experiencing sickness certification tasks as a work environment problem, holding a specialty in occupational medicine, and having a well-established workplace policy regarding sickness certification matters were significantly positively associated with finding assessment of work capacity as 'not at all/somewhat problematic'; (g) participation at least once a week in coordination meetings with the Social Insurance Agency and/or employer regarding sickness certified patients was negatively associated with finding assessing patients' work capacity as 'not at all/somewhat problematic' Moriguchi et al[49] (2013) Japan n = 557 OPs; Kyoto occupational health promotion center; (response rate: 31% (175 OPs); n = 76 no longer active as OPs; n = 86 OPs who were either; private clinic-based or hospital-based questionnaires via mail in 2008Examine activities of private clinical-or hospital-based OPs; identify difficulties encountered in occupational health service (a) OPs wished to allocate more time for: examination follow-up (2.6 h/month); mental health care (2.0 h/month); prevention of overwork (1.9 h/month); attendance at the safety and health committee meetings in the plant (1.9 h/month); (b) discrepancy between the current and the desired allocation was greatest for: risk assessment (171% as the desired/current ratio); maintenance and management of work and the work environment (150 and 152%); time allocation for health examinations appeared to be sufficient; (c) major difficulties in: management of mental ill health (36 OPs); guidance of workers on sick leaves (11 OPs); followed by prevention of health hazard due to overwork (30 OPs); diagnosis of return to work (15 OPs); (d) OPs had difficulty in dealing with: industrial hygiene-related issues such as risk assessment (14 OPs) and maintenance and management of work and work environment (11 cases each; (e) respondents were generally self-confident regarding: physical health management (typically providing general health examinations); to solve the problems related to lack of experience with mental health issues referral to experts…”