Ability to work, handicap prevention in hospitals: Development and preliminary study of tools for a systematic data collection compendium

Purpose of the study. The purpose of the study is to conceive and evaluate tools which enable to standardize data collection and to compare how health care establishments keep employees at work. Method. Two questionnaires were carried out from gathered experiences of six public university hospitals (called in France Centres Hospitaliers Universitaires [CHU]): one questionnaire dealt with nine decisive issues in working management policies and the other one dealt with competences and human means devoted to achieve these policies. Results. The first questionnaire was sent to occupational physicians and to 14 human resources departments. Answers from 10 hospitals were able to be evaluated. The second questionnaire was sent to six of the 14 above-mentioned CHU and four answers have been treated. Answers varied a lot and showed how hospital policies differ from one another. This variability begins with multiple definitions of the jobs (adjusted, adapted, appropriate...). Work facilities mapping seem to be doomed to failure. There is no overall policy to evaluate the effectiveness of workplace improvements nor to implement systematic prevention of ability restrictions causes. Conclusion. The tools that were used meet. the requirements for a data sharing so that the ability at work becomes a matter of progress. Shared experiences would held in that. way. Once adapted and developed, the tools would have to be brought into widespread use in all the hospitals. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.