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Cooperation in the health plan of university employees and integrated examination of their wellbeing among the staff of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences:

A significant proportion of the human life is spent on working. In today’s complex life, there are numerous occupations, and their required methods, environment and work materials might pose risks to the health and life of workers. Results of the health monitoring of the community workers in the future are determined based on the reduced number of the young employees who become incapacitated at an early age due to various diseases or undergo trauma due to physical and mental weakness. Depending on the objectives, occupational examinations are categorized as: pre-employment examinations, periodic examinations at the time of changing jobs, and examinations at the time of returning to the job (e.g., after a long period of unemployment, leave or sick leave). One of the most important and fundamental prevention plans for work-related illnesses and incidents in every country, which is a member of the International Labor Organization and the World Health Organization, is performing medical examinations for employed individuals. With regard to the significance of periodic examinations, it could be stated that these measures are in fact an approval of the pre-employment examinations. If the initial symptoms of diseases (occupational and non-occupational) manifest, the disease progress could be hindered to ensure the health of employees by conducting periodic examination (at least once a year), which minimize the treatment costs as well. From this perspective, periodic examinations can also be considered as form of life insurance, which prevent disabilities of the workforce before reaching the retirement age and standstill of the national production. Variety of occupational hazards in healthcare centers, nature of the occupations that involve complex work conditions, scientific and knowledge level of this group and the subsequent costs imposed on the society in the case of disease and disabilities in this groups are the main testaments to the importance of medical monitoring and health and safety assessment of these workers in relation to the exposures, damages and illnesses in the work environment, which calls for the immediate attention of the hospital managers and occupational medicine specialists.