The Occupational Health Group (MET) at Tampere University is participating in a consortium project that studies occupational health care services together with Kela, the University of Eastern Finland, Turku University Hospital (TYKS), and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
The aim of the project is to investigate the integration of occupational health care services into the new structure of wellbeing services counties. The special expertise of the participating entities complements each other, enabling a comprehensive and multi-method research framework. The project is funded by Kela.
Tampere University is conducting three sub-studies. These address
- digital and remote services in occupational health care,
- waiting times, and
- the treatment of musculoskeletal and mental health problems.
The latter two studies focus on patients who have visited Pihlajalinna's occupational health services at least twice between 2018 and 2022. The digital and remote services section utilizes both Pihlajalinna's patient registry and Kela's registry of compensations for occupational health costs for employers. Additionally, interviews will be conducted to investigate the experiences of customers (employers) and service providers (occupational health professionals) using digital and remote services in occupational health care.