ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS (EHRs) AND PATIENT WORK INFORMATION

Partners and Stakeholders

Stakeholder support for work information in EHRs

Public health and occupational health organizations recognize the potential for EHRs to improve patient care and public health, and have expressed support for the inclusion of work information in EHRs.

Institute of Medicine (IOM)

At the request of NIOSH, the National Academies of Science of the IOM assembled a committee to study the feasibility and rationale for including information about patient work, including patient occupation and industry of employment, in EHRs. In 2011, the IOM committee released “Incorporating Occupational Information in Electronic Health Records: A Letter Report” (ISBN # 978-0-309-21743-9) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13207

American Public Health Association (APHA)

In 2012, APHA published a policy statement “Incorporating Occupational Information in Electronic Health Records” (policy #20127) http://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2014/07/11/16/27/incorporating-occupational-information-in-electronic-health-records

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE)

In 2012, CSTE published a position statement “Inclusion of Occupation and Industry as core data elements in Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and in recommended elements in other minimum data sets.” (policy 12-OH-01)

http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.cste.org/resource/resmgr/PS/12-OH-01FINAL.pdf

American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM)

In 2012, in a letter to the National Coordinator for Health IT, ACOEM called for the inclusion of information about patients’ work in ERHs.

http://www.acoem.org/Comments_OccupationalHealthDataStage3.aspx

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS)

In 2012, the NCVHS Subcommittee on Population Health recommended that occupation and industry should be implemented as key indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) in federal health surveys.

http://www.ncvhs.hhs.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/120622lt.pdf

DHHS U.S. Environmental Justice Strategy

The 2013 U.S. Environmental Justice Strategy and Implementation Plan advocates for incorporation of occupational and environmental history/exposure forms into the EHR.

http://www.hhs.gov/environmentaljustice/strategy.pdf