M.W.O.H. offers a full range of Occupational Health Services to help you meet all your health promotion needs. We would be delighted to discuss your particular needs and develop a package tailored to your needs. Some of our services are listed below. Simple click on the service for more detailed information
• The Pre-Employment or Pre-Placement Medical Assessment
• Health Surveillance
• Sickness Absence Management
• Return to Work Assessment
• Executive Medical Screening
• Risk Assessment
• Ergonomics Advice
• Workplace Stress Management
• Advice on Legislative Compliance
• Interface With Insurers and Legal Advisors
• Vaccination Programmes
• Advice on Setting up an Occupational Health Service (Including Staffing, Accomodation, Equipment, etc.)
• Health Promotion
• Maintenance of Medical Records

The pre-employment assessment determines whether a new employee meets the medical requirements of a position. It aims to ensure that the prospective employee is fit to perform the job effectively, with reasonable levels of attendance and without risks to their own health or safety or that of other employees. We also aim to ensure that the organisation complies with current relevant legislation.

Our pre-employment assessment contains a number of the following services, which can be tailored to the needs of the organisation:
• Health questionnaire
• Past Occupational and Exposure Details
• Physical examination
• Vision screening including VDU and colour vision testing
• Lung function testing
• Hearing assessment (audiometry)
• Blood screening
• Urine analysis
• Substances of abuse testing

In addition workers considered to be at risk of contracting infectious diseases are offered screening and immunisation (e.g. hepatitis B, rubella, tuberculosis, tetanus).

At MWOH our pre-employment assessment is governed by important principles regarding quality of service. We believe that medical screening should not delay the recruitment process. We can generally provide appointments within two working days of a request and ensure a quick turnaround of results and reports.
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Health surveillance programmes aim to identify problems that can arise in connection with a particular occupation at the earliest possible stage. In many cases health surveillance is a legal requirement. At MWOH we can provide a range of health surveillance programmes depending on your organisation's specific needs. Assessments may be carried out on a regular basis to detect health conditions related to work and to monitor exposure to various hazards that may have an effect on employee's health. This ensures that your organisation is compliant with current legislation as well as assisting in the determination of the effectiveness of your existing control measures. Our health surveillance programmes include:
• Hearing conservation including audiometric testing
• Lung function testing
• Skin surveillance
• Vision screening
• Visual Display Unit screening
• Ergonomic issues
• P.P.E. fit testing

We can also advise regarding the appropriate scheduling for health surveillance programmes and arrange for surveillance to be performed on site or at our offices depending on your particular needs.
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It is usually very important that all companies maintain a low employee sickness absence rate. The impact of sick leave absence is significant with lower productivity levels and increased costs affecting employers. Frequent or long term sickness absence is expensive in salary costs and temporary cover, plus the hidden cost of lost productivity. It’s particularly disruptive in smaller companies where everyone is critical to the business performance.

It has been estimated that sickness absence from work costs the Irish economy about 14 million workdays annually or 7.8 days per person employed. While not all absences can be eliminated, there is significant room for improvement and a proactive management system that includes appropriate medical reviews arranged with the Occupational Health department, followed by advice from the Occupational Physician, will greatly assist the company Human Resource department and ensure that their absentee rate is as low as possible.

In some cases, it may also be possible to dismiss or retire an employee, particularly in a case where there is long term sickness absence, if a company has carried out an appropriate clinical assessment with the employee through it’s Occupational Health department.

MWOH have the resources and expertise to provide your company with this service
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This ensures that any employee who has been medically unfit for work (usually because of a long-term sickness, but sometimes also because of a short-term sickness), is fit to return to the workplace. Very often adjustments to the type of work they normally do, or adjustments to their normal working hours will need to be made, in order for them to be rehabilitated back into the workplace safely.

Return to work Assessments also ensure that the workplace did, or did not, cause the illness, and the illness has not affected the employee’s capacity to continue in their present job.

MWOH can again assist you and your company with these Assessments.
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Every Organisation is dependent for its success on a number of key individuals performing at optimum levels. It is vital that these people are in peak physical and mental health. In today's global business environment senior management are under increasing pressure to perform. This can lead to intolerable stress levels. Health screening is a proactive approach to medical care. It is aimed at early identification of medical conditions and lifestyle issues at a time when appropriate intervention can reduce the risk to the individual. We offer a complete, comprehensive and personalised report on every individual allowing a stress profile to be built within an organisation. The service includes an extremely comprehensive physical check including:
• Lifestyle analysis
• General Health Questionnaire
• Pressure Management Indicator (Stress Questionnaire)
• Urinalysis (Screening for kidney disease and diabetes)
• Blood Cholesterol Profile
• Blood Biochemistry (including liver and kidney function tests)
• Full blood count
• Prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer
• Resting ECG (Heart Tracing)
• Vision Screen
• Audiogram (Hearing Test)
• Spirometry (Lung function test)
and where indicated...
• Cervical Smear for cancer of the cervix
• Exercise ECG
• Mammogram
• Bone Density (osteoporosis)
• Ultrasound of abdomen
• Chest X-Ray, MRI scan of neck or back
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It is essential that an employer identifies all the significant hazards to his/her employees in the working environment. No working environment is completely safe. A "Hazard" is defined as the potential of a substance, a process, or a situation to cause harm. A "Risk" is the probability of that harm occuring.

Risk management is an increasingly important part of running a business today. Risk management starts with the recognition, evaluation and control of hazards in the workplace. Proper risk assessment ensures compliance with legislation, identifies areas for improvement and by so doing makes a safer, healthier workplace with all the benefits this brings. Mid West Occupational Health Service aided by our medical expertise, specialises in many areas of risk assessment including:
• Chemical hazards
• Biological hazards including First Aiders exposed to blood or body fluids
• Ergonomic hazards including use of visual display units and "factory floor" issues
• Physical hazards including Noise and Vibration
• Psychosocial hazards including stress and violence
• Pregnancy
We can also provide you with other services such as Biological Monitoring and advise you regarding your Occupational Hygiene requirements.
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Ergonomics is the term applied to the field that studies and designs the human-machine interface to prevent illness and injury in the workplace and to improve work preformance.

This includes Factors such as Force and Acceleration, e.g. Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV) and Whole Body Vibration (WBV), Thermal, Work Duration, Repetition, Contact Stresses, Postures and Psychosocial Issues.

MWOH can provide advice, assistance and guidance with the ergonomic requirements of your Organisation.
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Psychological Stress occurs when there is an imbalance between the demands made upon an individual and their perceived ability to meet these demands. Peoples mental health, both in general and in the workplace, is influenced strongly by their perception of control over factors affecting their situation.

Henry Kissinger once said, “ There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full”.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work estimates that one in three workplace ailments are stress related and it predicts that by the year 2020, the main reason for absence from work will be a depressive disorder, which means that how people feel at work is of crucial importance today. It is important therefore that companies give proper advice and information to their employees on the recognition and management of Stress etc. They should also carry out a Risk Assessment of Stress within their particular organisation and, where necessary, follow up with appropriate corrective action.

MWOH can advise and provide your company with your requirements in this regard..
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Health and Safety in the workplace in Ireland is governed by Acts, Orders, Regulations and Codes of Practice.

It is important and essential that your Organisation is aware of and complies with these.

MWOH can provide advice to your Organisation on your legislative requirements.
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Every employer has an obligation to take reasonable care of all his /her employees, and to guard against reasonably foreseeable risks of injury. If ever there is an accident or a work related injury, the Occupational Physician can provide very valuable advice to the company’s insurers or legal advisors, respecting, of course, patient confidentiality.

MWOH can again assist your company with this service.
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As an employer it is important that you take all reasonable measures to ensure that your employees are protected from biological hazards that they may encounter during the course of their work. These measures will include, not just the usual hygiene precautions, and the wearing of appropriate personal protective equipment, but also at times the administration of vaccines. Some of these vaccination programmes will be accompanied by laboratory blood tests. They include ( among others )

• Business Traveller.
• First Aider.
• Firefighter.
• Healthcare Worker.
• Sewage Worker.
• Laboratory Worker.
• Vaccination against Seasonal Influenza.

MWOH can advise and deliver to your organisation an appropriate Vaccination Programme.
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Different companies and different organisations will require different Occupational Health advice. Depending on the number of employees or the hazards to which some employees are exposed, this may involve the setting up of an in-house Occupational Medical department -that is usually manned by an Occupational Health Nurse-, or it may instead rely on, and contract, an external provider for it’s Occupational Health requirements.

It is generally recommended that new companies would consult and engage an Occupational Physician for advice on setting up an Occupational Health Service, at the earliest possible opportunity e.g. during the building design stage, so that the Occupational Health department layout etc. will be appropriate and meet the needs of the organisation.

MWOH has the experience, knowledge, and personnel to advise your company on setting up an Occupational Health Service.
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In the Workplace, healthy employees are happier and more productive, so it makes sense for companies to help employees stay as well as possible. While a healthy lifestyle is a personal choice, companies can act to make it easier for their employees to make healthy choices.

MWOH can help your company to create a Wellness programme specifically tailored for your Organisation.

Increasingly this is seen as a business solution to a costly business problem and not just a benefit to employees health or a "nice thing to do".
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All company employee medical records should be kept and maintained in its Occupational medical department or in the offices of a designated Occupational Physician. All employee medical records are treated with the highest level of confidentiality, and in Ireland, the Data Protection Act 2003 safeguards the accuracy and availability of these records.

Occupational Medical Records can include:

• Preemployment Questionaires.
• Results of Objective clinical findings by the Occupational Physician.
• Results of Special Tests e.g. Vision (keystone), Lung Function (spirometry), Hearing (audiometry).
• Advise to a companies Human Resource department on an employees fitness or otherwise for a particular job.
• Details of regular Health Surveillance.
• Results of laboratory tests.
• Medical Review Data.
• Immunisation Records.
• Consent / Refusal Forms.
• Communication Reports from G.Ps., Hospital Consultants, Physiotherapists, etc.
• Occupational Hygiene Data.

The records can be hand held documents or computer generated. MWOH can advise you on the appropriate requirements for the safe Maintenance of your companies Medical Records.
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