EVALUATION OF OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH SERVICE IN THE WOOD PROCESSING-INDUSTRY - DETERMINATION OF EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

In order to define priorities for improvement oi the occupational heal th Service (OHS) in one primary health care unit, employees' satisfact ion was evaluated with a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire cover ed items on service reservation, personal health education received, q uality oi the OHS, and use oi the OHS within six months by the employe es. This evaluation was one step of the quality system that was planne d in accordance with the ISO 9004-2 standard for continuous quality im provement oi OHS. The study population was ail of 1,050 employees work ing for live employers, 546 (52%) employees responded to the inquiry. However, only 377 of them had made use oi the OHS within the last six months before the inquiry. The mean age oi the responders was 42 years (SD = 9 years) and 76% of the respondents were men. The percentages o i employees with a high degree oi satisfaction with the quality oi the OHS and personal health education in the OHS were 76% and 69%, respec tively However, concerning the quality of the OHS, the proportion oi h ighly satisfied employees was 27% higher (95% CI = 19-35%) among those who had used OHS within six months compared to the others. Furthermor e, when the oldest (>48 years) and the youngest (<35 years) age groups were compared, the difference between the proportions of highly satis fied employees was 21% (95% Ci = 11-31%). in conclusion, the high diff erences suggest a close linkage between the employee's satisfaction wi th the OHS, the use of the OHS and ageing.