Overseas travel is an exciting prospect for employees. As soon as a trip is assigned, an employee is sure to start planning meetings with colleagues, outings during their time off, and what souvenirs they’ll bring home for their family. The furthest thing from their mind is making sure they have medical clearance.
If someone hasn’t traveled to a country before, they likely have no idea what immunizations they may need or want to stay healthy during their visit. It’s up to a company’s occupational health team to make sure that the employee is cleared to travel. If you send employees to a lot of international destinations, it can be valuable to have OH software that keeps track of the requirements for each country.
Creating a Checklist
You should already have your employees’ medical records in your health clinic software. This will help you see what immunizations they’re already up to date on, so you don’t have to administer any unnecessary shots. This will also serve to warn you about any potential allergies or contraindications that could prevent an employee from receiving a specific vaccination.
OH software makes it easy to schedule all of the medical visits your employees need before they travel. From check-ups to every round of booster shots for the immunization, you can ensure that everything is taken care of well before their departure.
Every travel clearance is different. Quality OH&S software creates checklists not only for each country your employee may visit, but it also tracks the different requirements for urban and rural travel as needed. By connecting to WHO, CDC, or you preferred organization, it can also alert you to any temporary health-related travel advisories.
Beyond immunization, OH software provides information on the travel kits needed for each destination, allowing you to supply employees with any medication they may need to bring along with them, such as malaria preventatives or altitude sickness cures. Employees often don’t think to pack these things on their own and can be caught out when they have to try to find a pharmacy in a foreign country.
Sometimes, international travel has to happen at the spur of the moment. An emergency overseas may require someone on-hand within days to manage things. That’s when you’ll be glad to have all of your travel clearances filed in your OH software, so that you can tell at a glance who is already cleared to safely travel.
Other Tips to Prepare for Travel
Your employees need more than just immunization to be prepared to travel. Before they go, make sure to brief them on anything they need to know about local health risks. Depending on the destination this could be anything from water quality to venomous snakes to bird flu. Employees who have never been to a high-altitude area or a desert may need to be taught to watch for the signs of altitude sickness or heat stroke in themselves and others.
Beyond that, it never hurts to give a bit of information about local customs and business etiquette. Of course, that’s beyond the scope of what OH software can do, but a quick Google search should provide you with the information you need.
If you follow these steps and make the best use of the software solutions available to you, your employees should have safe, healthy, and productive travels.
