ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS (EHRs) AND PATIENT WORK INFORMATION
Electronic health records (EHRs) are replacing paper medical records in most medical environments, but EHRs typically do not contain information about patient work.
When it is available, healthcare providers can use information about their patients’ work to provide the most appropriate care. In addition, healthcare organizations can use work information to identify groups of patients who may be at risk for harmful exposures or health problems, or who may benefit from specific interventions.
Patient work information in EHRs and other health information systems also can be used to support public health activities, such as case reporting and disease registries. NIOSH develops tools and investigates best practices that support the inclusion of work information in EHRs and collaborates with federal, state and other partners to ensure that EHRs can be used to improve and track the health of workers.
- The HL7 Informative Work and Health Functional Profile full document is available for download at http://www.hl7.orgexternal icon
- The 2017 JOEM Fast Track paper Recognition of the Relationship Between Patients’ Work and Health: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Need for Clinical Decision Support (CDS) for Worker Health in Five Primary Care Practicesexternal icon won the 2019 RADM Julia Plotnick Publication Award for Health/Nursing Policy.
- AHRQ Blog: Building a Future for Shared Clinical Decision Supportexternal icon
- HHS Releases a New Resource to Help Individuals Access and Use Their Health Informationexternal icon
In order to better serve the public and the scientific and educational communities, all comments and suggestions to improve this site are welcomed. Please also let us know what information from this site was useful to you and why. E-mail us at EHRs_and_Work@CDC.gov.
- Incorporating Occupational Information in Electronic Health Recordsexternal icon
- Office of National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC)external icon
- American Health Information Management Association-Public Health Data Standards Council (AHIMA-PHDSC)external icon
- HL7external icon
- IHE Internationalexternal icon
- Digital Bridgeexternal icon
- CSTE Case Reporting (RCKMS)external icon
- National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)
- NNDSS Modernization Initiative (NMI)
- Adapting Clinical Guidelines for the Digital Age