Preplacement Health Assessments
Preplacement Health Assessments
Preplacement health assessments are for applicants who have accepted an offer of employment for a position whose duties are included in the Occupational Medicine Program. They are also for current employees whose duties have changed into the Occupational Medicine Program or whose duties fall into a newly regulated category.
Scheduling a Health Assessment:
Preplacement health assessments are scheduled by the individual's department with the Student Health Care Center. One exception is for the new employee of an IFAS unit located in another area of the state, in which case the unit administrator will schedule the exam with a local physician. An employment action (i.e. new hire, promotion or transfer) will not be processed until the applicant satisfies applicable preplacement health assessment criteria.
Further Information for Department Administrators.
Further Information for Employees and New Hires.
Medical Monitoring
Periodic medical monitoring continues from the preplacement health assessment for selected categories that require health assessments at varying periods of time. Current employees will be identified for periodic health assessments by the individual's department and tracked by the Division of Environmental Health and Safety. The major areas that include periodic medical monitoring are described below:
- The research animal contact requirements are structured to meet the criteria specified in the National Institutes of Health's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Additional regulatory requirements impacting researchers involved in animal studies are contained in USDA/APHIS regulations.
- The asbestos requirements include individuals who have been trained to conduct emergency asbestos abatement. Federal and Florida law requires these individuals be provided baseline and annual physical examinations.
- Individuals required to have a class A, B or C commercial driver license must have a preplacement health assessment and participate in UF's drug and alcohol testing program.
- Those who have contact with human blood or other potentially infectious material are covered under UF's Bloodborne Pathogen Program. They must be trained on the hazards of working with this material and offered a series of vaccinations.
- Patient contact is defined as having face-to-face contact with a patient, or having contact with potentially contaminated items including (but not limited to blood and/or body fluids.
- Employees who work with pesticides as defined in that medical monitoring program policy must have a baseline physical and periodic blood testing.
- Employees required to wear respirators for protection from the accidental inhalation of toxic fumes are required by Federal and Florida occupational regulations to be provided a baseline and periodic health assessments.
- The scientific research diving requirements are structured to meet the criteria of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences or other applicable requirements adopted by the UF Diving Safety Board. These criteria as defined in the Diving Science and Safety Program require all research divers to have a periodic physical.
- Those who work in areas of excessive noise fall under the Hearing Conservation Program. Federal and Florida occupational regulations require that all high sound level work environments be evaluated and employees be examined for hearing loss on an annual basis.
