So, what is Occupational Health Software?

Many occupational health teams still work with paper-based systems, or run their operations on spreadsheets, and won’t be aware that specialist occupational health software systems are available. So, please let us give you an overview.

Occupational Health Software, such as OrchidLive, enables clinical and administrative teams to efficiently provide the best possible care for service users. Each day, with competing priorities and responsibilities, customisable dashboards and diaries give each staff member a clear and prioritised view of where to focus their time. 

At its core, occupational health software is a secure and confidential repository for employee health records - combining clinicians' case reports, health surveillance assessments, messaging communications, immunisation records, sickness absences, test results and health stats to form a whole and easily visible view of an employee’s health in a work context. This allows clinicians to make the most informed decision about an employee’s ability to productively and safely perform their role. 

Where specialist occupational health software differs significantly from mass market software such as Microsoft Excel or Sharepoint is the ability to segregate employee records so that they can only be accessed by the appropriate clinicians. This ensures that employee consent has been granted in advance before sharing with the relevant managers: crucial for meeting GDPR data protection requirements. 

Occupational health software provides an efficient case management workflow for managers referring their team members, whether that is a pre-placement assessment or a case referral for an existing employee. With a platform such as OrchidLive, triage and workflows can be automated and efficiencies brought to the report writing process, which both minimise human error and save time. 

Mandatory health surveillance, safety critical assessments, drug/alcohol testing and the regular periodic recalls that are required can all be easily managed through occupational health software - helping to alleviate the administrative burden and the associated non-compliance risk. With a dedicated diary function, health surveillance for groups with similar assessment requirements can also be efficiently organised.

For occupational health providers, specialist occupational health software smartly integrates billing into your workflows by segregating clients into different ‘contracts’ that can have different clinicians, different charge-out rates and different processes - making it painless to invoice each client.

Specialist occupational health software will also allow you to easily generate bespoke reports from your data - crucial for delivering a high quality occupational health service, maintaining compliance with client SLAs, health surveillance regulations and delivering evidence of ROI to commercial stakeholders. 

Lastly, specialist occupational health software provides peace of mind. With purpose built audit logging, carefully considered data segregation and security, and robust infrastructure to ensure maximum software uptime, you can be confident that service users’ data is safe, and your compliance and legal requirements are being met. Remember to always look for ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials as trusted hallmarks of security and quality. 

About The Author

This article was written by Oliver Bridge, MD at Orchid Live.

Orchid Live (OrchidLive.com) is a specialist occupational health software platform serving OH providers, public and private sector organisations across the UK, with thousands of clinicians using their platform every day. 

If you’re considering your options on occupational health software, please book a meeting with our MD Oliver to discuss your requirements.