Margaret Stroz, MD
Medical Director, Occupational Health Center
If you've visited the Occupational Health Center in the past several months, you may be aware that we have been undergoing some extensive renovations. If you haven't visited lately, come by and see some of our improvements.
It is not simply in physical upgrades that we are changing. There are several behind-the-scene changes occurring at OHC as well. First, I am pleased to announce the addition of two new clinical providers and medical assistants to our occupational health team with a goal of improved efficiencies in patient care. We are pleased to have them onboard.
In addition to our new team members, we continue to look for ways to improve upon our iCARE Values - Innovation, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. These are Chester County Hospital's guiding principles. The collaboration and accountability between our clinical team of certified nurse practitioners, physician assistant and physicians enables us to meet your employment needs for evaluating individuals for work at preplacement or with work injuries. We continue to strive to follow the Academy of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Guidelines for injury care in diagnosing and treating our patients at a high standard of medical care while controlling costs. We have a particular focus on injury care that encourages quick return to work, with modifications as needed to promote eventual recovery to full function. We believe our new model for patient evaluation, where the injured worker will be seen by one of our midlevel providers and followed by our more senior and experienced physician team at a routine frequency, will allow us to more effectively address concerns of delayed recovery, transitional return to work and co-management of duty status determination with our referral specialists. If you haven't noticed any change, give us a call so we can better address any concern you may have.
Our final change may be the most apparent. OHC will move forward with an electronic medical record during these fall months. While we hope you'll notice new efficiencies as we improve communication with reporting of work clearances and test results and worker's compensation case management, we realize these changes will have a large impact on our business. Please be patient with us as we continue to grow into our new systems.
At the risk of not quite reaching a mark set in Dr. Donze's past editorials, I'll leave you with another song, albeit an earworm, that I hope by the spring we will all be singing...
Think, Beach Boys. Think, "Good Vibrations."