Skip Navigation



Occupational Medicine Advance Access published online on December 18, 2007
Occupational Medicine, doi:10.1093/occmed/kqm138
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
58/2/88    most recent
kqm138v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kivistö, S.
Right arrow Articles by Varonen, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kivistö, S.
Right arrow Articles by Varonen, H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Return-to-work policies in Finnish occupational health services

Sirkku Kivistö1, Jos H. Verbeek2, Maria Hirvonen3 and Helena Varonen4

1 Work and Mental Health Team, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41aA, FIN-00250 Helsinki, Finland
2 Cochrane Occupational Health Field, Knowledge Transfer Team, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, PO Box 93, 70701 Kuopio, Finland
3 Statistics Team, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, PO Box 93, 70701 Kuopio, Finland
4 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41aA, FIN-00250 Helsinki, Finland

Aim To describe return-to-work services for employees on sick leave offered by Finnish occupational health services (OHS).

Methods Finnish OHS are surveyed every 3 years. Respondents are asked if they offer services to facilitate return to work (RTW), and if so, to describe them. The description was qualitatively analysed using the Atlas-ti programme to find the themes that best describe the services. We also studied characteristics of OHS predicting a return-to-work policy.

Results Of the total sample of 969 occupational health units, 95% responded to the survey. Forty-one per cent reported offering services for facilitating RTW after sick leave. The service usually consisted of occupational physician examination of employees on sick leave for ~6 weeks. This was followed by a joint discussion between employee, physician and supervisor, which could result in work accommodation or a work trial period. There was a substantial variation, with only 10% mentioning a joint meeting and 13% mentioning a work trial period or work accommodation. Return-to-work policies were more frequently found in the OHS that served only a few employers, provided more group activities and collaborated more with employers and research institutes.

Conclusion Less than half of Finnish OHS offer return-to-work services of which the contents show wide variation that is not in line with current scientific evidence. A guideline project for return-to-work practices is needed to fill the gap. More research is needed to best define monitoring and screening practices for workers on sick leave.

Keywords      Disability evaluation; occupational health nurse; occupational physician; sick leave; vocational rehabilitation

Correspondence to: Jos H. Verbeek, Knowledge Transfer Team, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, PO Box 93, Kuopio 70701, Finland. Tel: +358-304747289; fax: +358-304747221; e-mail: jos.verbeek{at}ttl.fi


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.