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[A study on effective implementation of the Shinjuku Regional Occupational Health Center Program in Japan]
Abstract:
The Regional Occupational Health Center (ROHC) Program is aimed at improving occupational health services for small-scale enterprises (SSEs) with less than 50 employees. In 1993 the ROHC program began as a new policy announced by the national government, which entrusted the management to regional medical associations. The establishment of 347 ROHCs has completed in 1997. SSEs are able to use several services, such as workplace visits and health consultations at SSEs, but ROHCs have often been under-utilized. Purpose of this study was to discuss the effective implementation of ROHCs through a couple of surveys of potential and actual ROHCs users. Two surveys were conducted in the area of the Shinjuku ROHC. Survey 1: The subjects were 78 SSEs that used The Shinjuku ROHC between October 1996 and March 1999. A qualitative evaluation was carried out for 78 SSEs about users' positions, opportunities for use and kinds of consultations. Survey 2: The subjects were 50 users of the ROHC between April 1998 and March 1999. The effective response rate was 56.0%. A questionnaire survey was conducted on users' impressions before and after using the ROHC and on requests for further service. Survey 1 showed users' positions were office workers 36.5%, managers 32.0%, directors 17.0%, health nurses 9.0% and employees 3.5%, half of the users were recommend by the Labour Standards Inspection Office. The kind of consultation were on Industrial physicians, 22.9%, Occupational health control systems, 19.1% and ROHC functions, 16.8%. Survey 2 showed that almost but all users had misunderstood the ROHC's function before utilizing of its services, but many users were satisfied with the services provided. First, ROHCs need to make known their existence and the content of their services available to SSEs. Second, ROHCs have to improve their availability to SSEs. Third, ROHCs have to ensure the quality of their services to make users satisfied. And cooperation with other occupational health institutions will become important as the ROHC Program continues to develop.