By Jill Nagy
Dr. Michael Holland heads a medical team headquartered at Saratoga Hospital that looks after the medical needs of companies and their employees. From modest beginnings as company doctors, occupational medicine, Dr. Holland’s specialty, has developed into a board-certified field of medicine.
Dr. Holland began his medical career as an emergency room physician but, during off hours, the emergency room also served as the hospital’s occupational health office. After 18 years in the emergency room, and with a young family, he no longer wanted to work nights and weekends. Therefore, he undertook another residency and, since 1994, has been an occupational medicine specialist.
His field aims to meet the health and safety needs of business customers. Services include pre-employment examinations to make sure a candidate can do the job safely. He checks for illicit drug use, but also for such things as the ability to use a respirator mask for a job that requires one. For bus drivers, Dr. Holland assures that they can meet federal and New York State requirements. Basically, Dr. Holland explained, he tries to assure that a prospective employee will not be a danger to himself or others.
When a work site is experiencing large numbers of injuries, an occupational health specialist can come to the workplace, look at the job and the people who perform it, try to determine the causes of the excess of injuries, and prescribe possible remedies.
Another aspect of occupational medicine is the required surveillance of workplaces for the presence of lead, asbestos, cadmium, or other dangerous elements. These inspections are required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA). OSHA and other employer safety laws passed during the Nixon administration gave the field of occupational health a large boost, Holland noted.
Occupational medicine differs from occupational therapy, a field with a similar name. The latter focuses on the needs of someone disabled by injury or illness and helps that individual adapt activities of daily living to overcome those disabilities. While occupational therapists may be part of an occupational medicine team, they are generally not physicians and have their own training and certification apparatus.
Until recently, Dr. Holland also headed the occupational medicine department of Glens Falls Hospital. That office is now closed. Glens Falls Hospital still maintains an employee health service of which Dr. Holland is medical director, but no longer serves clients outside the hospital, he explained.