How Urgent Care Is Changing Occupational Medicine

While urgent care centers may not be able to handle every aspect of occupational medicine, they are an underused resource for occupational injuries, checkups, and return-to-work clearances. Understanding the role that urgent care facilities can play in occupational medicine will make medical care easier and more affordable for employees and employers. Urgent care facilities can also facilitate communication between patients and their employers, while still respecting patient privacy.

What is occupational medicine?
Occupational medicine is the branch of medicine devoted to treating people in their capacity as employees. It focuses on several areas including:

• Treating and preventing workplace illnesses and injuries
• Fit-for-duty physicals
• Specialty physicals
• Drug and alcohol testing
• Workers’ compensation

Why visit an urgent care facility for your occupational medicine needs?
An urgent care center that has an existing relationship with your employer can directly bill your employer for occupational medicine testing or treatment, which can simplify the process for employees.

Can an urgent care center handle workplace emergencies?
Yes. Urgent care facilities such as Central Jersey Urgent Care & My InstaDoc Urgent Care are capable of handling mild to moderate emergencies including sprains, strains, lacerations, and burns and even chronic use injuries like tendinitis. They are also capable of handling follow-up care for emergencies and working with your physical therapist to get you better.

What role do urgent care facilities play in preventative medicine?
In addition to offering preventative care like flu shots, COVID-19 vaccines, and testing, urgent care centers can provide screenings for diseases that can impact worker health and safety, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes or assess for health conditions that can impact performance at work. They can coordinate information with an employee’s primary care physician to provide less expensive and more convenient healthcare.

How do urgent care facilities handle workers’ compensation claims?
Treating a workplace injury is similar to treating an injury received anywhere else. However, medical professionals who are involved in workers’ compensation claims are asked to provide professional opinions about whether the injury is a workplace injury. In some cases, the answer is clear; the injury is the result of an accident or condition that was observed at the workplace. In other instances, it can be more difficult to determine whether an injury occurred in the workplace. Urgent care facilities that work with employers often have a better understanding of the demands of the job and the structure of the workplace, making them better able to assess workplace injuries.

Central Jersey & My InstaDoc Urgent Care and Occupational Medicine
Providing quality occupational medicine is one of Central Jersey Urgent Care’s & My InstaDoc Urgent Care’s goals.
We provide the following services:

• Pre-employment physicals
• CDL Exams
• Audiometry & EKG’s
• DOT and Non-DOT Drug Testing
• Respiratory Fit Tests
• Lab Test Collection and PPD Tests
• All Vaccinations (Hepatitis B, MMR, etc…)

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to call us or visit our website!

Categorised in: Blog

This post was written by CJ Urgent Care of NJ