Onsite Health Screening’s Big 3
These 3 types of health screenings are key for injury prevention and improved employee health outcomes.
- By Lauren Lazar
- Aug 01, 2023
For workers in high-risk environments, their health and wellness are critical to their performance and function. But when shifts sometimes range from eight to 10 hours a day, for five to six days a week, it can be hard to make time for the preventive healthcare needed to keep bodies and minds in optimal shape.
Onsite health screenings are a valuable tool for workers and site leadership. No one wants to lose time on the worksite —
employers and employees alike — so properly evaluating health and wellness, and developing a plan to improve both at home and on the job is becoming increasingly important. Health screenings promote injury prevention, improve health outcomes and boost worksite culture and job satisfaction — all by ensuring that workers have convenient access to the health resources they need.
Today, there are a variety of health screenings that can be provided right on the worksite and performed by clinicians who might already be present to support injury care. For leadership looking to address the whole health and wellness of workers, there are three key types of health screenings that give onsite clinicians a full picture of the health of each worker and the entire workforce — biometric screenings, ergonomic assessments, and health and wellness knowledge assessments.
Biometric Screenings
When workers bring themselves to the job site every day, they also bring with them their underlying health conditions. Knowing and understanding the health conditions that are impacting the population is important for onsite clinicians to be able to provide the right care and treatments to deliver optimal health outcomes. Biometric screenings, such as body mass index, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol checks, can be performed by onsite occupational health professionals allowing them to better support the population. These screenings can assist with the detection of hypertension, diabetes, and risk for heart disease.
Onsite access to screenings allows workers to get their results within minutes, and onsite professionals can provide appropriate counseling on next steps for further testing or treatment from primary physicians. These screenings also make early detection of chronic conditions possible and provide valuable information for onsite providers to help workers prevent or manage conditions. For example, if an employee is showing prediabetic blood sugar levels, an onsite provider can discuss ways to manage blood sugar and prevent diabetes that the worker can begin implementing that same day. The best care provides an easy avenue to better health, and getting a biometric screening from a trusted onsite provider is a great way to get workers thinking more proactively about their wellbeing.
This article originally appeared in the August 1, 2023 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.