Objectives: The objectives of this article are to characterize the clinical activities encountered by a large academic hospital-based occupational medicine program and to discuss their implications for occupational medicine residency training and the training of practicing physicians.
Methods: Clinical activities from July 1, 1996, to December 31, 2004, were retrieved from computerized databases and categorized. All morbidity coding was performed using the same classification scheme and resource.
Results: The largest volume of clinical activities included patients seen for physical examinations, work-related injury and illness care, and substance abuse testing. The most frequently encountered workers' compensation cases were musculoskeletal.
Conclusions: Although medical surveillance examinations, toxic exposure assessments, and other specialty services were available, the demand for such services was relatively low.