Panel Sees Need for More Workplace Health Professionals—Including Non Physicians

Urgent care providers who offer occupational medicine services may be able to lower their payrolls while increasing revenue though new business, if a new report from the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health is any indication. The panel convened to examine what steps federal workplace safety agencies can take to encourage more students (or even people looking for a career change) to go into workplace health and safety. It concluded that more employers may need to depend on safety and health staff members in an effort to maintain a healthy work force while lowering healthcare costs—and that some of those staff members may not necessarily even need a Bachelor’s degree; for certain positions, such as various technicians and therapists, certifications are sufficient (if not preferable). The most recent study by the CDC’s National Assessment of the Occupational Safety and Health Workforce estimates that after workplace safety engineers, who account for 59% of related positions, the most common related positions include industrial hygienists (15%), occupational health nurses (9%), and general occupational medicine staffers (3%). It also suggests that employers will need to fill roughly 5,000 positions annually.