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Nonclinical careers for Occupational Health Physicians

Oct 03, 2021

Nonclinical careers for Occupational health Physicians:

 

WORKERS COMP SYSTEM addresses work related injuries and illnesses

 

It is a No fault system, kind of a deal between the employer and employee that resulted because prior law was not effective and efficient in resolving the conflict.

 

There are certain provisions of this deal that comprise the workers comp law

 

  1. Employee gives up their right to sue the employer
  2. Employee will accept an amount per week work related injuries
  3. Employer will assume will not defend contributory negligence and agreed to pay regardless of fault
  4. If there are disputes they will be dealt with by adm instead of legal authority

 

No monetary allowance for pain and suffering, only for disability

No punitive damages towards the employer

No federal regulations oversee state workers comp laws



These are basic principles that the states take and put together state workers comp laws which then vary from state to state

 

What is a compensable injury?

 

Physiological or psychological harm in the context of Employment relationship arising out of employment and occurring during the course of employment

 

The burden to prove causation is on the injured worker and there has to be greater than 50 percent likelihood that the event caused harm




Unique transferable skills

 

Business knowledge

Advocacy for injured persons safety

Protection of health information

Familiarity with workers comp state laws

Familiarity with workers comp insurance providers

 

Administrative experience

Excellent Communication and conflict resolution skills

Interest in Legal process 

Knowledge if Physiology of work activities

Mechanism of injury and the industrial process around it

Knowledge of Physical demands of job

Knowledge of Musculoskeletal challenges of work

Interest in Toxic exposures and mental stresses related to occ health

 

Comfortable Engaging multiple parties at the same time

Well versed in state workers comp laws

Comfortable evaluating workers referred by employer

Understanding  of industrial process

Knowledge of Toxicology

Experience of Fit for duty exams

Experience of Pre Placement and exit physicals

Experience with Clearing employees

 

Experience with recommending accommodations

Knowledge of Recordability of injury

Familiarity with workers comp exposures



Occupational health overlaps several other specialties like

Ortho

Surgery

IM

Toxicology

 

Occupational health Physicians are experts in  



Mechanism of injury and the industrial process around it

Physical demands

Musculoskeletal challenges

Toxic exposures and mental stresses



Ultimate corporate goals where Physicians can lend a helping hand are:

 

To Minimize loss time injuries

To Minimize recordable events

To Eliminate catastrophic events

To Prevent injuries

To Educate workers

To Manage in house health enhancing programs

To oversee occ health clinics

To Formulate protocols and procedures

To Draft exec health objectives

To Formulate exercise and stretching programs

To Define ergonomics

To help manage stress and to reduce health care cost and workforce lost productivity

To design exercise and stretching programs 

To refine ergonomics

To safeguard protected health info

To recommend disability accommodations 

To manage onsite clinics

Run Occ injury preventable programs,  perform pre placement and  return to work exams



OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PHYSICIANS CAN SERVE IN FOLLOWING ROLES





  1. Hospital administration
  2. Corporate directorship and Medical Directorship-Local and Regional
  3. Industrial clinic Medical directorship
  4. Perform IME exams

 

Physicians can build a practice performing IME examinations.

An independent medical examination is usually a one time exam 

Pt is referred by an insurance company or a third party

The goal is to determine cause and evaluate for permanent impairment, recommend needed work accommodations, determine if worker is fit for duty or not, recommend rReturn to work clearance and deal with short and long term disability



  1. Pharma
  2. UM
  3. Chart review

 Experience as a panel physician will help you gain insight into the client portfolio, state and local guidelines and customer expectations. Workers compensation chart review is a great way to gain entry into this industry as a 1099 contractor

  1. Consulting medicine and industry
  2. Advocacy for injured workers rights
  3. Education-teachers writers mentors
  4. Government-ph adv health dept, public health hospitals, research and regulatory areas, Aerospace military etc pretty much  every branch of government
  5. Expert witnesses







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Sudha Bakhshi

For me, Jawaria has been a game changer in seeking non-clinical employment. I’ve been working with her for a period of time that was divided into a number of phases.

This first part was to undergo an inventory of professional traits to better understand my strengths and weaknesses. In general I am skeptical of organizational personality assessments and feel that they tend to overgeneralize and group people based on superficial assumptions. However, I decided to commit to this approach in order to obtain a more objective view of how my interactions may result in certain perceptions in a work environment. This helped me to focus on my motivations and how I wanted to approach this stage of my career.

In the second phase, Jawaria helped me to create a coherent narrative that was reflected in a revision of my resume. She was very supportive as I overcame my hesitation to assert myself in more contemporary formats, such as LinkedIn. I felt that the conversations that we had were essential to feeling more confident as I moved forward to identifying positions that were of interest, researching the employers and writing customized cover letters to accentuate skill sets.

The third phase navigated the strange and often confusing experience of the interview process. Jawaria helped me to just accept the black box that is HR for many corporations and to then move forward to interviews with medical directors and company executives. She was present after every interview, to challenge and also to validate my perceptions of what transpired.

I have many supportive friends in medicine and other professions that offered insight and encouragement in my job hunt. But I feel that the investment in the professional coaching Jawaria offered was essential to creating the mindset necessary to approach and feel comfortable competing in the current non-clinical environment.

In the end, yes, I was able to get an offer for a job that I feel will be very interesting and challenging. And I am very grateful for Jawaria’s assistance in helping me in this process. She was very willing to share her own experiences as a physician and this was enormously meaningful.

There is a saying: “When the student is ready, the teacher will come”. This definitely applied to me and I felt that what she said resonated, even from our first conversation. As physicians, we invest into our profession, but there is something to be said for investing in ourselves as well. I would encourage my fellow doctors to consider how important professional mentorship can be and how often it can feel inaccessible. But if you are ready, then Jawaria can be the catalyst to empower physicians to feel energized about their career choices.