News | Caroline Kalu | 9 October 2024
Occupational health users ‘highly satisfied’ with their care
Research shows staff are highly satisfied with the care they receive from allied health professionals working in occupational health.
Over a six-month period in 2023/24, the occupational health team’s senior physiotherapist Laran Chetty, Michelle Babbs, clinical psychologist, Emily Kenworthy, occupational therapist, Lucy Braude clinical psychologist, and Samuel Henderson, clinical psychologist surveyed Royal Free London and Whittington clinical and non-clinical staff who were referred to them to gain an understanding of the impact of their service.
Laran, who led the study, said: “The purpose of an occupational health service is to ensure that employees remain at optimal health. Although client satisfaction has been studied in a variety of settings, its use in the occupational healthcare setting with allied health professionals is lacking. Allied health professionals play a vital role in supporting colleagues to remain or return to work and this contributes to the productivity of the business. Evaluating client satisfaction in this way allows us to understand the needs of our clients but also their expectations of the service.”
Staff who had received at least two sessions of occupational therapy, four sessions of physiotherapy and six sessions of psychology were asked to complete the survey. A total of 111 people responded out of 160 surveys sent.
The key findings, which have been published in the British Journal of Multidisciplinary and Advanced Studies, show the following:
- The occupational health team are providing services to a diverse range of staff, covering all demographics (ethnicity, disability, occupational group, age, length of service, gender, sexual orientation).
- More than 90% of colleagues were satisfied with the therapy received and their therapist, including the duration and frequency of treatment, appropriate follow-up, continuity of care and staff involvement in the decision-making process.
- Around 98% of staff were supported to remain in work or to return to work.
“In their comments, staff also told us that they found the service to be supportive and caring, that it improved the quality of their working lives and reduced their pain,” added Laran. “The areas for improvement were in communicating more clearly the onward referral process and reducing waiting times. We have already recruited an additional physiotherapist and psychologist to enable us to see people quicker and will be repeating the survey again so we can continue to make quality improvements to our service.”
Our therapies team is part of the wider occupational health and wellbeing team, providing psychology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy services to assess and support staff members with concerns resulting from their work or impacting on their work.