Citation

Taylor JA, Widman SA, James SJ, Green-McKenzie J, McGuire C, Harris EJ. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2017; 59(8): 742-745.

Affiliation

Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University (Dr Taylor, Ms Widman, Ms McGuire); Philadelphia Department of Public Health (Ms James); Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (Dr Green-McKenzie); Drexel University College of Medicine (Dr Harris), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/JOM.0000000000001088

PMID

28692016

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: No comprehensive national system tracking work-related diseases and injuries exists in the United States. Industry and occupation (I/O) are the missing data elements that would make existing healthcare data useful for occupational health. The authors previously petitioned the National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC) to adopt I/O standards for states to consider during their healthcare data rulemaking processes.

METHODS: The NUBC asked for a pilot study to ascertain the potential burden. The time and cost to ask I/O questions in two hospital emergency departments was evaluated.

RESULTS: Asking four I/O questions required 48 seconds on average and cost between $520 and $623 per Registrar per year. The annual cost for the two hospitals to gather I/O on every patient was $4160 and $15,000.

CONCLUSIONS: We conclude no undue burden compared with the estimated $250 billion cost of occupational illnesses and injuries.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0.

Language: en