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Quality of occupational health provision: two rating scales and their determinants

Venables, Katherine M. and Allender, Steven 2008, Quality of occupational health provision: two rating scales and their determinants, Occupational medicine, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 439-442.


Title Quality of occupational health provision: two rating scales and their determinants
Author(s) Venables, Katherine M.
Allender, Steven
Journal name Occupational medicine
Volume number 58
Issue number 6
Start page 439
End page 442
Publisher Oxford University Press
Place of publication Oxford, England
Publication date 2008-09
ISSN 0962-7480
1471-8405
Keyword(s) Health services research
occupational health services
quality assessment
universities
Summary Background To develop quality scales for occupational health services (OHSs) and describe and explain variation in quality across the UK university sector.

Methods Analysis of data from a national survey, to which 93 of 117 (79%) UK universities responded, and from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Two quality scales were generated, one from the 1985 International Labour Organization recommendations on OHSs and one from clinicians’ perceptions (good, adequate, poor) about their OHS. The determinants examined were number of university staff, type of OHS (in-house, contracted, none/other), number of full-time equivalent occupational health doctors and nurses and OHS leadership (doctor, nurse, other).

Results There was wide variation in quality and a correlation (r = 0.65) between scales. In-house service, increasing service size and leadership by a doctor or nurse were determinants of higher quality; size of the university was not statistically significant after taking account of these factors.

Conclusions Some university OHSs may not be structured or operated to promote the highest quality of service. Inspection of individual quality scale items may be informative. These scales may be applicable in other employment sectors.
Notes Published online 18 June 2008
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine
Language eng
Field of Research 111708 Health and Community Services
HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
HERDC collection year 2008
Copyright notice ©2008, The Authors
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30020493

Document type: Journal Article
Collection: Public Health Research, Evaluation, and Policy Cluster
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