Trends in employee health service : Margaret F. McKiever, editor.

  • United States. Public Health Service. Division of Occupational Health
Date:
1965]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Trends in employee health service : Margaret F. McKiever, editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Industrial health service as exemplified by [full-time industrial physicians] . . . is fundamentally preventive medicine. Its object is to furnish the employed population the best possible health protection consistent with: (1) The purpose of industry, which is to carry on its business; (2) the employer’s responsibilities as fixed by law, which are the prevention, care of, and compensation for occupational injuries and diseases; (3) the duties and objectives of official and nonofficial health agencies, which are distinctively in the field of preventive medicine; and (4) the employee’s rights as to free choice of a physician in the care of sickness and injuries, not legally related to occupation. from the standpoint of . . . the foregoing, health service in industry is found to comprise several functions . . . industrial hygiene, physi- cal supervision, therapy, rehabilitation, diagnostic tests, health instruc- tion, records, and research. _ The scope of industrial health service may be summarized as fol- lows: It is responsible for the protection of working people against possible sources of disease in the plants, their safe placement, the sub- sequent supervision of their health in relation to employment and the treatment of conditions that result from occupation. It is the plant physician’s privilege and duty to cooperate with the general profession and departments of health in their respective efforts to treat and reduce general sickness. Industrial medicine, general practice, and the public health are complemental. To conserve human values is their common purpose. Quoted from Selby, C. D.: “Scope and Organization of Health Service in Industry.” Industrial Hygiene (edited by A. J. Lanza and J. A. Gold- berg). New York, Oxford Uniwersity Press, 1939, p. 4. We may define industrial health as a specialized form of medical and public health practice, combining certain elements of medicine, engi- neering, chemistry, toxicology, psychology, sociology, statistics, and the principles of the prevention of disease and health promotion, to the end result that the physical and mental efficiency of the worker is in- creased and production bettered in quality, quantity, and permanency. Quoted from Sappington, C. O.: Industrial Health: Asset or Liability. Chicago, Industrial Commentaries, 1939, p. 5. The purpose of industrial health programs is to promote and main- tain the physical and mental welfare of all industrial employees. ... These objectives should be accomplished by— 1. Prevention of disease or injury in industry by establishing proper medical supervision over industrial materials, processes, environments, and workers. 2. Health conservation of workers through physical supervision and education.