Achievements, Problems, and Future Direction of the Quality Control Program for Special Periodic Health Examination Agencies in Republic of Korea

The ultimate goal of the quality control program for special periodic health examination agencies is to diagnose the health condition of a worker correctly, based on accurate examination and analysis skills, leading to protect the worker’s health. The quality control program on three areas, chemical analysis for biological monitoring since 1995, and pneumoconiosis, audiometric testing since 1996, has contributed to improve the reliability of occupational health screenings by improving the issues including standardization of testing methods, tools, diagnostic opinions, and reliability of analysis for biological monitoring. It has contributed to improving the reliability of occupational health monitoring by rectifying the following issues associated with previous monitoring: absence of standardized testing methods, testing tools that are not upgraded, mismatching diagnostic opinions, and unreliable results of biological specimen analysis. Nevertheless, there are issues in need of further improvement such as lack of expertise or the use of inappropriate method for health examination, and passive and unwilling participation in the quality control. We suggested solutions to these problems for each area of quality control program. Above all, it is essential to provide active support for health examiners to develop their expertise, while encouraging all the health screening agencies, employers, and workers to develop the desire to improve the system and to maintain the relevance.

Ambient Noise Levels in the Audiometric Test Rooms Used for Special Periodic Health Examination / 대한산업의학회지

OBJECTIVES: The ambient noise levels in the test rooms affect the workers's hearing threshold. The present study was designed to assess the ambient noise levels in the test rooms to determine if valid hearing tests, both pure-tone air conduction and bone-conduction, could be performed in these environments. METHODS: In the present study, third octave band ambient noise sound pressure levels were measured in 124 audiometric test rooms used for clinical audiometry, and the results were compared with the ANSI third octave band maximum permissible ambient noise levels (MPANLs) for each test condition and frequency range. RESULTS: The ambient noise SPLs were highest in the lower frequencies, and this decreased as the frequency increased. For the "ears covered"condition, about 24.2% of the rooms were in compliance (pass) with the MPANLs for the 125-8000 Hz, 35.5% were in compliance for the 250-8000 Hz range and 55.6% were in compliance for the 500-8000 Hz range. For the "ears not covered"condition, only about 8.1% of the rooms passed for the 125-8000 Hz, 13.7% of the rooms passed for the 250-8000 Hz range and 34.7% of the rooms passed for the 500-8000 Hz range. All 124 rooms met the OSHA MPANLs. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study strongly indicate that clinical audiometry is being conducted in test rooms having unacceptable or excessive ambient noise levels.