Telephone OH Assessments

The Lifeline Telephone Consultation is an extremely useful alternative to face-to-face assessments. Many health specialties already use them to great effect and we have been developing its use in Lifeline for four years. The reason is that most consultations in OH do not rely heavily on the examination, more on the history and very detailed questionning.

Also, the high proportion of stress cases in the clinical mix lends itself well to telephone assessment and support.

The benefits are;

1. Quicker appointments-often 1-2 days rather than 1-2 weeks. Good if HR managers require health information about their employee quickly eg
   1. employee returning to work shortly after illness or operation. You need to know the risks and any adjustments which may be needed to make sure they are safe at work.
   2. longer term absence cases with whom you have a review meeting shortly.
2. Distance no object- eg if employee lives a long way from the assessment centre. We often conduct health reviews by phone and email with clients in the Hebrides and even one in China!
3. Employee too ill or disabled to come to clinic? Arrange telephone assessment.
4. Probably around 80% of cases could be dealt with by phone if need be. Even for the other 20%, it can be a very cost-effective useful first assessment in cases which do later require physical examination.
5. Rapid follow-up for pre-employment questionnaire assessments.
6. Cheaper than home vsits as travel avoided.
7. Often easy to do Same Day assessments.