ACOEM releases 10 point Agenda for Change

The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) has released its 10 point Agenda for Change - an advocacy plan intended to improve the health of America's workers and at the same time integrate workplace health more closely with the nation's overall health improvement strategies.

The Agenda for Change is part of ACOEM's broad "Healthy Workforce Now" initiative, which was launched in 2009. The initiative combines health-promotion activities and educational tools for employers and workers, clinical and practice management resources for physicians, and advocacy with national policymakers for changes to the health care system.

At the top of ACOEM's agenda is a call for a new "national culture of health in the workplace," followed by other action items, ranging from better access to health care services for workers, a reduction in health disparities and improvements to the workers' compensation system to better integration of workplace health and public health and safety and stronger response to environmental health risks.

"ACOEM believes that its time for all of us in the health care system to recognize the workplace as a critical location for achieving our overall health goals as a nation," said ACOEM President T. Warner Hudson, MD. "The workplace offers unique resources and infrastructure for addressing both individual and population health."

"In an environment in which health costs are skyrocketing, evidence-based health strategies aimed at the nation's workforce can have significant long-term impact, potentially saving billions in costs and improving the health of millions of Americans," Dr. Hudson. "For our national health efforts to succeed, it is vital that we begin integrating our health-improvement efforts equally across the workplace, the home, and the community, and "America's occupational and environmental physicians can play a key role in helping make this happen," he said.

The 10 points of ACOEM's Agenda for Change are:

1.Establish a national culture of health in the workplace.
2.Ensure that every worker in the United States has access to occupational health care.
3.Protect public health and public safety by promoting workplace initiatives that help strengthen and improve the national public health and public safety infrastructure.
4.Improve the quality, cost and consistency of the nation's workers' compensation systems.
5.Reduce health disparities in the workplace.
6.Create stronger protections for workers through enhanced rulemaking and recordkeeping policies.
7.Promote federal funding for training programs in OEM residency programs.
8.Include workplace health initiatives as a fundamental component of federal health policy.
9.Raise awareness and response to environmental health risks in the workplace, homes and communities.
10.Strengthen the practice environment for OEM physicians to ensure they are able to provide the full extent of their expertise to benefit the health of workers, their dependents, and retirees.

ACOEM will distribute information about its agenda to national policy makers, employers and workers, and other stakeholder organizations in coming months, Dr. Hudson said.