New York Occupational Medicine Doctor

What is Occupational Medicine?

Occupational medicine, or occupational health, is a very specific focus in the medical industry that focuses on helping people recover from work-related illnesses and other worker’s compensation injuries. Because work-related injuries and illnesses can range widely from broken bones to cancer, occupational medicine doctor is one of the most wide-ranging of all medical specialties.

While the idea of visiting a doctor if you have concerns about your safety at work, isn’t exactly the most appealing concept, these professionals contribute a great deal to the healthcare field, and the more you know about occupational health and medicine, the better protected you will be from workplace injury and illness.

What Does Occupational Medicine Doctor Do?

Although a primary physician can treat workplace injuries and illnesses, occupational medicine doctors are specially trained not only in diagnosing these types of issues but treating them as well. Occupational doctors aren’t just people that you see when you are sick or injured, in fact, they are primarily seen as a form of preventative medicine.

Some occupational medicine specialists focus primarily on helping to prevent these types of injuries and illnesses from happening in the first place. In fact, these medical experts not only often work with patients directly, but with businesses, insurance companies, public health professionals, and occupational safety experts to focus on more preventative care.

The idea behind occupational medicine is to help individuals maintain good health even when working in high-stress or high-risk environments and to help businesses with better attendance, higher productivity, and lower risk injury issues among their employees.

Occupational Medicine and Workplace Injuries

Occupational medicine has an essential role in today’s workplace. In fact, many companies have their own occupational health strategy in place in order to help their employees be happier, healthier, and more productive team members.

Depending on the individual workplace, these professionals can help with health-risk assessments, offer class programs and workshops, or create detailed preventative health programs. There are many occupational medicine professionals that offer nutritional coaching, health and weight loss programs and exercise courses and programs to help individuals of any organization stay as safe and healthy as possible in workplaces.

Of course, as many companies know, it is not only important to keep employees healthy so that they can show up to work and contribute, but it is important to keep them safe as well, as well as reduce the number of workers’ compensation claims. This is why occupational medicine programs also provide training, programs and safety education to help lessen the likelihood of workplace injuries. This, of course, can be of great benefit to any company as it can prevent insurance issues, medical care, and workplace disruptions from happening.

These medical experts can also help make sure that if injuries or illnesses do occur that employees can get on the road to recovery as soon as possible and return to their normal healthy state very quickly

Occupational Medicine and Worker’ Comp Clinics

There are many organizations that actually require their employees to visit an occupational medicine facility if they are injured on the job. While some very large corporations will have their own medical doctor on staff, the average business can not offer that type of perk and, therefore, will require their team members to go to one of these clinics following an issue—mostly for insurance reasons.

The good news is, occupational medicine clinics are very experienced not only in providing proper medical care but to make sure that their care comes with the right documentation as well. They should be able to provide you with the expert medical assistance you need while staying in compliance with your employer’s provisions and even with filing worker’s compensation claims.

These clinics, also sometimes called Occ Med Clinics, typically provide an array of services including:

• Post-accident testing and screening
• Drug and alcohol tests for employees
• Lab work
• X-Ray Films,
• Referrals for MRIs, CT-scans,
• Nerve Conduction Tests (EMG, NCV)
• EKGs
• Blood tests
• General health screenings
• Physical and Occupational Therapy
• Injury care
• Assistance with Worker’s Compensation or Disability forms and paperwork

However, it is important that if you are looking for a specific, non-emergency related service, that you call ahead to double-check on different tests and screenings.  

Find an Experienced Occupational Medicine Doctor Near You

While no one ever wants to deal with a work-related illness or injury, it is essential to know the nearest occupational medicine clinic in your area—should you ever need to turn to one of these experts for help. If you need to find an occupational medicine doctor or an experienced worker’s compensation doctor near you, call 1-800-897-8440 today.