![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.png)
The Occupational Health Service Centre, Health & Working Life (H&A), has 90 employees. They are responsible for occupational health services for approximately 50 000 employees in the Vastra Gotaland region (VGR), in the southwestern part of Sweden. This project includes patients on long-term sick-leave with the needs of work capacity evaluations, originating from a subgroup of about 6 000 employees within VGR.
Methods
H&A has used a team approach including separate evaluations of a nurse, physician, physiotherapist and psychologist. At the end of the investigation there was a joint assessment before presenting the results to the patient and then to the patient and the employer at a separate meeting.
The outcome of the process was evaluated by two questionnaires and a six month sick-leave follow-up. The patient questionnaire had 7 questions related to information, treatment and presentation of the results. The employer questionnaire had eight questions related to the assessment and the recommendations following the investigation and the contacts with H&A. All questions were graded in six steps from 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest).
Results
The study included 128 Gothenburg (113 females and 15 males), employed at two hospitals and the service sector in VGR. The outcome of the patient and employer questionnaires was very positive. The means of the 7 questions in the patient questionnaire were all between 5 and 6. The corresponding figures for the 8 questions in the employer questionnaire varied between 4.8 and 6. About half of the patients suffered from psychiatric disabilities, e.g. burn-out.
Full-time sick-leave was reduced by 50% at the six month follow-up.
Discussion
The team approach used by H&A gave a positive response from both patients and employers in this survey. After an evaluation by an independent investigator, the team structure is now used at larger scale among the employees in VGR.