Asia Poses Greatest Medical Risks To Asia-Pac Employers

KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 (Bernama) -- Employers in Asia-Pacific find the health of their travelling employees are most at risk not in faraway places, but in the geographical perimeter of their own backyard, according to an online poll. In its survey, International SOS, the world's leading medical and security services company, said 56 per cent of some 100 respondents said Asia posed the greatest risk for their organisation in 2012. This was followed by Australasia/Pacific (21 per cent), Middle East (9 per cent), Africa (7 per cent), America (2 per cent), South America (2 per cent) and Europe (2 per cent). In addition, 47 per cent of respondents said their organisation had experienced a medical related incident affecting their employees last year while 14 per cent said they reported on the potential return of investment from their medical risks management programmes. “Medical risks vary across regions and can be broadly defined as the level of access to international standard healthcare, medication, safe food and water, as well as the prevalence of infectious diseases,” said Dr Dick Hooper, Medical Director of International SOS. The message for companies, he said, is not to bar people from travelling to these places, but to better understand the baseline health of their employees, the risks they face at a particular location, and how to prepare them through wellness or training programmes. According to the company, medical risk management is fast becoming an area of concern for companies, with mobile assignees growing by over 25 per cent over the last decade, with a further growth in assignments by 2020. To reduce medical risk for employees, Dr Hooper has suggested a few steps; by adopting an eight-step Duty of Care model, which is an evidence-based approach to employee risk mitigation. This involves assessing risks, planning strategically, developing policies and procedures, and managing global staff mobility. The other steps are communicating, educating and training; tracking and informing employees; advising and assisting; and ending with controlling and analysing, he added. --BERNAMA