An audit of occupational health care for employees with low-back pain

Guidelines for occupational rehabilitation of workers with low-back pain were developed as part of a larger study. We have formulated criteria for good practice of occupational rehabilitation on the basis of these guidelines. To assess the quality of occupational rehabilitation in the Netherlands, these criteria were subsequently used in an audit of medical records. The number of patients who received care consistent with the guidelines was compared to the number of patients eligible to receive that kind of care (performance rate). Six performance rates were calculated from the medical files of 40 workers with 48 new episodes of low-back pain. Two performance rates proved to be below 25% and two almost 50%. The highest performance rate, that for curative policy was 90%. These results are discussed in the light of the reliability of the original data. We recommend construction of guidelines as well as reliable registration of the occupational rehabilitation process to increase the possibilities of auditing and to raise the quality of occupational health care.