The preplacement medical evaluation of hospital personnel

Preemployment physical examinations necessarily focus on problems bearing on an individual's ability to safely perform in his work setting. A review of 3,599 examinations of prospective hospital workers reveals that the most frequent observations of significance involved susceptibility to communicable disease--specifically, inadequate diphtheria immunization in 52% and inadequate rubella antibodies in 16% of those tested--and the potential for disease transmission, including tuberculin reactivity in 14% and intestinal protozoa in 13 prospective food handlers. Other findings included 14 individuals with positive serological tests for syphilis, but only two of whom required anti-luetic therapy. An additional 14 were found to be hepatitis B surface antigen carriers. Only 2.3% of those examined were found to exhibit diastolic hypertension at the time of their examination, possibly because of the relative youth of the group studied.