Marshfield Clinic Health System will now include occupation in patient health records

(WSAW) - Marshfield Clinic Health System will now ask patients about the industries and jobs they have. They say understanding what job a patient has will help with their overall care.

“By gaining insights into the day-to-day experiences of our patients, we can identify key factors that influence their well-being and enable our researchers to uncover correlations between working populations and biological data,” Dr. Corey Cronrath, an occupational medicine physician and medical director of Marshfield Clinic Health System’s Occupational Health service line said. “This valuable information will pave the way for improved healthcare interventions and better outcomes for individuals in the various workforces we serve at Marshfield Clinic Health System.”

According to the National Safety Council the cost of time lost to work-related injuries and illnesses in 2021 was $167 billion.

With Wisconsin’s risky jobs like construction, agriculture and transportation, Marshfield Clinic believes this patient information is critical for health providers to be aware potential impacts on patient health.

Not only will this information help a patient, but it will also help gather data on health impacts in different industries.

“We will be one of the few health systems in the country equipped to examine health data in light of someone’s work,” Dr. Casper Bendixsen, director of the National Farm Medicine Center at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute said. “In agricultural communities, this will impact how and to whom we deliver valuable safety and wellness knowledge, but also shed light on health trends, such as the types and rates of cancers, respiratory diseases, and Parkinson’s disease in the farming population.”

Patient job information will not affect health insurance costs or coverages.

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