How Hospitals Build Stronger Partnerships with Local Employers

The core service that hospitals and medical centers provide to their communities will always be the care of individual patients and families. Hospitals can extend their service offering, and their revenue potential, by growing their occupational medicine and workers compensation business to local employers. An increasing number of employers are adding post-offer physical evaluation testing to their human resource strategy to mitigate the risks of hiring mistakes. Local hospitals are uniquely positioned within their community to provide such services, thus growing their occupational medicine business and strengthening key strategic partnerships with local employers.

The need for post-offer physical evaluation testing of job candidates is especially important for labor-based industries, such as nursing, manufacturing, warehousing and construction. The success of such industries is predicated on the physical abilities of their employees. Labor-based organizations are seeing the greatest benefits from implementing post-offer physical evaluation testing into their new hire strategy. Logistically, however, these types of non-clinical organizations are not staffed with internal resources to complete such testing, so the evaluation must occur off-site.

Some organizations rely solely on a physician’s examination to determine a candidate’s fitness for work. These organizations make new hire offers contingent upon the candidate’s need to obtain a physical exam from a physician, either of the candidate’s or the hiring organization’s choice. The candidate is then required to make an appointment and obtain the required exam. Depending on the candidate’s motivation and the schedule of the provider’s office, it could take several days for the candidate to make an appointment. After the exam, it could take another several days for the physician’s report to be faxed to the organization’s hiring manager. The time required for this process could ultimately delay the hiring process, adding stress to an organization that is already labor-strained.

Aside from the coordination issues and delays that this method can cause, organizations are finding that a physician’s exam is not a true indication of a candidate’s ability to perform the required physical skills of the job. A physician’s exam only provides limited biometric data, such as the candidate’s age, weight, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), etc. Candidates are typically evaluated on a pass/fail basis subject to the discretion of the physician or physician’s assistant (PA) completing the exam. Such subjective exam results, which can vary widely depending on the physician or PA conducting the exam, lack an analysis of the candidate’s physical abilities relative to the job’s required physical tasks. Ultimately, organizations that are utilizing physician exams as a method of post-offer physical evaluation testing are not properly protecting themselves from the risks associated with a hiring mistake.

process is streamlined for maximum efficiencyUnlike physician groups, hospitals are uniquely positioned to offer the type of objective evaluation testing that can provide an organization with the level of detail and data needed to ensure a new hire poses little risk for injury or job misplacement. The most effective post-offer physical evaluation method that can be offered to an employer is the Physical Capacity Profile® (PCP) test. Unlike physician’s exams that subjectively evaluate a candidate’s physical fitness on a pass/fail basis, the PCP test measures a candidate’s ability to perform a variety of repeated and sustained physical tasks. Data is obtained and analyzed electronically and compared against standard criteria established by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Department of Labor’s work classifications. The profile report tells an employer if a candidate is physically able to meet a job’s fitness requirements, and what physical impairments or historical injuries exist as risk factors – data that can be used to offset a future workers’ compensation claim if an injury occurs.

Administration of the PCP test can be conducted in a hospital by a medical professional that has been trained and certified in test administration. By obtaining a test apparatus and credentialing staff in test administration, hospitals are able to offer a unique service to organizations in their community. By partnering with local businesses as their preferred provider of PCP testing, hospitals not only grow their service offerings, but also strengthen their position in the marketplace as a leader in occupational medicine and workers’ compensation services. For businesses that partner with local hospital PCP administrators, not only do they receive a more in-depth and useful evaluation than what can be obtained in a provider’s office, their hiring process is streamlined for maximum efficiency.

Employers looking to add physical evaluation testing to their human resource strategy are likely already in need of other health care services for prospective employees, such as drug testing, respirator fitting, hearing screens, and Department of Transportation (DOT) physicals. As an added benefit to organizations, hospitals are also able to expedite the evaluation process. By removing the need for a candidate to seek out a physician’s exam and wait for an available appointment, organizations can finalize new hire offers faster and more efficiently. Hospitals that offer integrated post-offer evaluation testing and screenings can become a total solution provider for their business partners, further solidifying their strategic community partnerships, and expanding their revenue streams.

Hospitals that integrate the PCP testing system into their service models can also benefit from conducting their own post-offer evaluations on potential new hires. Testing for prospective hospital employees can be conducted internally by the hospital’s trained staff. Data analysis and report generation is conducted electronically by third party software, eliminating the concern for internal manipulation of test results or subjective analysis.

With on-site PCP testing, hospitals can increase revenue, expand local business partnerships, and improve new hire strategies.

With unemployment low, businesses are needing to hire right, the first time. This ensures they are able to get the right employee for the job, who is less likely to become injured and help maintain the growth needed for prosperity in their market.

Physical Capacity Profile stands ready to share what other hospitals across the country are doing to make this a success not only for their own staff, but as a generation of funds, year round, from businesses in their communities.

Contact us, today.