Korean J Occup Environ Med.  1997 Feb;9(1):170-177.

Discriminating Function of Preemployment Medical Examination and Necessity of Changing over to Preplacement Medical Examination in Korea

• Han SH
• Chung SC
• Lee MH
• Song DB

Abstract

In Korea, every worker should undergo a preemployment medical examination according to Law for Occupational Safety and Health. But evaluation of it has not been previously carried out. Thus a telephone survey of 213 establishments of Inchon area for evaluation of preemployment medical examination in Korea was conducted. One hundred and fourteen companies(46.5% of all the subjects) were examined medically on preemployment, 47 establishments(41.2% of this study subjects) reevaluated workers by each establishment's medical criteria, and only less than half of diseased workers(DM 38.6% ; hypertension 42.1%, HBV carrier 28.0 % ; active pulmonary tuberculosis 7.9 %; back pain 12.3 %, and noise induced hearing loss 18.4 %) were employed. Employee's fees for preemployment medical examination were covered by 53.5 % of all the subjects. From our survey, it is clear that preemployment medical examination plays discriminating role on the employment of workers based on health status. We thus proposed to change over from preemployment medical examination to preplacement examination based on the evaluation of essential job functions and reasonable accommodation.

Keyword

Diseased workers; Essential job functional Preemployment medical examination; Preplacement medical examination; Reasonable accommodation

MeSH Terms

Back Pain
Employment
Fees and Charges
Hearing Loss
Hypertension
Incheon
Jurisprudence
Korea*
Noise
Occupational Health
Telephone
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary