Non-UConn Employee Health Services

Blood pressure check

Although UConn Health employees are the largest group that uses our services and receive the widest spectrum of services, we offer work-related medical services to the employees of many private-sector, governmental and educational entities. The scope of services reflects an agreement between our division and the employer, and it varies with the employer. Here are some examples.

  • Some of our client companies require a medical evaluation at hire (pre-placement exams). Other organizations, depending on the work their people do, also require periodic re-examinations to ensure that special hazards in their workplace are not undermining the workers’ health. Examples are jobs with lots of noise exposure or exposures to lead or asbestos.
  • Many workers spend most of their time at the health center, but are employed by other companies to provide dietary services, cleaning or other tasks. Because they may have close patient contact, these employees must follow the same guidelines as UConn Health employees regarding immunizations and screening for tuberculosis risk. We may review each person’s immunity status, offer immunizations when needed, and offer skin tests and other evaluations for tuberculosis. Some of these services are also offered to volunteers and medical trainees, who work at UConn Health but are not employed by it.

In addition to these exams, in which payment is arranged through a contract between the employer and the health center, we see people for injuries under the Workers’ Compensation program and work closely with the employer and its designated insurance carrier. In many cases workers are free to choose where to seek this care, and there is no special agreement between the employer and the health center.

Most of the services described above are paid for by the employer or by the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier.

Of course, any person who works on our campus, regardless of their employer, is welcome to see us for minor acute illnesses and injuries that are not work-related. In many cases this will be more convenient than seeking care off-campus and allow the person to return to work promptly.

Who Uses Our Clinic?

Cleaning staffThe Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine is fully engaged in education and research as well as clinical care. UConn Health’s mission has three parts: clinical care, education and research. We believe that each part enhances the others and that the best care is care that is constantly refined by the educational process and informed by research. We train medical students and residents in the concepts of occupational medicine so that whatever their future direction, they will be better able to recognize and manage the relationship between work and health.

In conjunction with the UConn Storrs campus, we train graduate students in bioengineering and industrial psychology. Our division has conducted many investigations sponsored by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, often under the umbrella of CPH-NEW, the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace.