INTRODUCTION:

Central City Medical Centre has been providing medical services to the people of Perth for over 12 years, including 9 years in its previous incarnation as the Forrest Chase Medical Centre.

The current site was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Perth on 12th August, 1998. It has the operating space to accommodate over 30 staff members including 12 doctors, 2 nurses, 3 para-medicals and other support and administration staff. With a central and prominent a location such as ours, it's easy to imagine that we can service a wide ranging demographic of people. In addition to being a traditional family practice, we provide non-therapeutic services that are currently utilised by a number of companies in and around the CBD area. These include pre-employment and executive medical examinations, fitness to fly checks, diving fitness checks, general workers compensation and insurance cases.

Our staff work very closely with each organisation so that the results reflect their requirements. We have likewise streamlined our protocols to suit the needs of each organisation so that client visits do not excessively occupy too much time and reports are despatched efficiently and in a timely manner.

Work site visits are commonplace within the CBD area as well as at remote locations but, naturally arrangements will have to be made beforehand with the organisation for expenses incurred.

In addition to our own comprehensive facilities (which comprise twelve consultation rooms, three treatment rooms equipped to handle a variety of procedures and a quiet room for audiology) we often work with and refer to the specialist centre located conveniently next door comprising of Physiotherapy, Pathology and Podiatry services just to name a few.

We hope that the introduction contained on these pages will give you an impression of the kind of practice we have here at the Central City Medical Centre and also of the services that we provide to the corporate sector. It goes without saying that the quality of service and professionalism you will find here will be hard to match anywhere else and that we are in a perfect position to provide the best medical services available to your organisation.

CORPORATE SERVICES

Organisations invest a lot of time and money in their employees, so it becomes a very expensive exercise when staff take sick leave for whatever reason. We understand the need to reduce absenteeism in the workforce and have made efforts to do so for all our clients. There seem to be three areas where, as medical providers, our input can and does have a great positive impact on the employee in question and indirectly on the employing organisation.

These areas are:

Medical Examinations
Injury and Illness Prevention
Treatment of Injuries and Illnesses

MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS

We deal with a variety of organisations and each of them have different requirements from their employees. Doing a fully comprehensive examination, while advantageous, is both costly and provides unnecessary information to the organisation. In view of this, we've made our examination protocols as flexible as possible so that only the most accurate information pertaining to the job requirement is gained from the examinations.

Having said this, we have found that there are four main types of examinations our clients tend to have: Standard, Detailed and Executive Medical Examinations and Pre-Employment Medical Examinations.

Standard, Detailed and Executive Medical Examinations:
These three examinations are generally used for ongoing assessments. Once again, which one to use is really dependent on the work requirements of the employee. The costs and depth of examination differs by a matter of degrees as can be seen in the comparison chart overleaf.

As a Practice that promotes preventative medicine to its private patients, we strongly believe that this philosophy can also be applied to our corporate clients. It is important to understand the need for continuous monitoring in order to develop a precise picture of the 'healthy' person. This way we can assess by how much the employee's work has contributed to the ailment, if at all.

Continuous and consistent assessment also allows for the early diagnosis of illness and the appropriate measures taken to correct it so that absenteeism due to sick-leave is reduced or even eliminated altogether. We schedule these at least once per year for each employee.

Comparison between standard, detailed and executive medical examinations:

O = optional by request
Y = included in examination

Pre-Employment Medical Examinations:

It is advantageous to ascertain the medical fitness of a prospective employee prior to their employment. This gives the employer an idea as to how well the person will be suited for the work. By measuring the medical fitness of the prospective employee, suitability for the job can be assessed. But more importantly medical details are recorded so that any injury alleged to be work-related can be assessed by comparison with their pre-employment health and thus curtailing false workers' compensation claims.

A pre-employment medical can be tailored to suit particular occupations depending on job requirements and specifications. The individuals job description will need to be considered when conducting the assessment. The centre is also approved to complete Mining Health Assessment forms for the Mine-Surveillance Program and these assessments can be performed at the time of the pre-employment examinations.

We also aim to raise the awareness of the individual undergoing assessment with regard to personal health status and facilitate health promoting behaviour.

An outline of the basic components of our Pre-employment Examination can be found overleaf.

Immediately following the examination a brief medical summary will be written and faxed or sent to the employer. This will state if the individual is fit for the proposed position and any concerns the doctor may have will also be included

External test results such as drug testings are conveyed directly to the employer. These results are usually available within 24 hours.

Time taken is approximately two (2) hours for a pre-employment medical depending on the extent of the examinations. If a Mine Health Assessment is required also it is approximately one (1) hour and can be performed at the time of the pre-employment medical.

Basic components of the Pre-employment Medical Examination:

Forms:
Job description form regarding the proposed occupation and the duties involved.

Physical Measurements/Assessments:
- Cardiovascular system
- Respiratory system - including spirometry
- Musculoskeletal system, including the spine, upper and lower limbs and associated
- muscular structures
- Gastrointestinal system
- Genitourinary system
- Nervous system
- Height and weight measurement
- Visual and colour blindness assessment
- Blood pressure and pulse

Pathology Tests:
- Routine Urinalysis

Optional:
- Urine Drug Screening
- Mine Health Assessment

TREATMENT OF INJURY OR ILLNESS

It is important to assess an employee with an injury as close to the incident as possible. In this way base-line data can be collected that are useful in monitoring the individuals progress. Treatments started as close as possible to the time of injury will also reduce rehabilitation time.

Our aim is to provide an environment at the surgery and at the work place where immediate assessment and treatment of injuries can occur. This is facilitated by providing telephone assistance to first aid officers to help them deal with problems at initial presentation.

It is also essential to recognise potential problems early and arrange a specialist review as needed. In the event that rehabilitation is needed, graduated return to work programs, work site evaluations and functional capacity assessments should be arranged quickly.

PREVENTION OF INJURY AND ILLNESS

Consideration should be given to immunisation programs for the work force. This program can include influenza vaccines prior to winter and tetanus and Hepatitis B vaccines for employees.

Download a printable copy of our Corporate Services here!