If you do not find the answer to your question about the Occupational Health Program, please contact the Enterprise Risk Management office at 361.593.4510 or 361.593.2237.

Q:  What is the Occupational Health Program (OHP)?

A. The Occupational Health Program is a service for individuals exposed to hazardous materials in the course of their duties and in certain circumstances, in the course of their studies. It covers many areas, including education, preventative care, health monitoring, and occupational exposure evaluation and treatment.

Q: Who participates in the OHP?

A.  Any person, listed on an IBC research permit working with agents at BSL-1 or above; or listed on an IACUC research or teaching protocol, needs to complete the Occupational Health Program Medical Screening Questionnaire in order to be approved to work on that permit or protocol.

Any TAMUK Operations department personnel, who has been identified by their supervisor through an Exposure Risk Assessment, as having a risk of exposure to 1) human body fluids, human tissues or wastes; or 2) animals, animal tissues or wastes; or 3) human disease-causing microorganisms needs to complete the Occupational Health Program Medical Screening Questionnaire before beginning work duties that have potential exposure to those materials.

Q:  How do I participate in the OHP?

1. Complete the Occupational Health Program Medical Screening Questionnaire Research Laboratory Personnel form.
2. Please include your demographic information (phone number, email address, department and supervisor on the form). 
3. If you work in a research facility, please type in your Principal Investigator’s name.
4. After you complete the questionnaire, save the form to your desktop and send as an attachment on your email to james.lambert@tamuk.edu.
5. You will receive a confirmation email once the form has been received.

Q: How do I receive medical services?

A. The Occupational Health Coordinator will assess the risk mitigations and medical services you need, based on your exposure risk assessment, and send you a medical services authorization form to indicate which services you should receive. Medical services are provided by a contract medical services provider. Detailed instructions will accompany your authorization form. Take that authorization with you to your provider to confirm which services you need. Without the Texas A&M University-Kingsville authorization form, you will be financially responsible for any testing that is performed.

Q: Who pays for the test?

A. Medicals services and testing is paid by your department.  For additional inquiries, please contact the Enterprise Risk Management office at 361.593.4510 or 361.593.2237.

Q: What happens if I am injured on the job?

A. Report all on-the-job accidents and injuries, including emergency situations involving serious injury, exposure, or after-hours incidents, to your supervisor IMMEDIATELY. This step does not take the place of calling 911 (campus phones: X2611) for emergency medical services for serious injuries or emergencies. It may be necessary to follow a specific procedure for control of infectious materials before emergency medical care can be given. An Incident Report form must be filled out by your supervisor within 24 hours of occurrence and returned to Human Resources and Enterprise Risk Management. Additional information can be found by visiting our Incident Reporting page.  

Q:  What if I don’t want to participate in the medical services portion of OHP?

A:  An employee may decline any assigned risk mitigation, whether it is recommended  or required. As a consequence of declining required risk mitigations, you may be denied access to certain facilities or be prohibited from certain activities. Even if you decline a specific risk mitigation, you can still receive other risk mitigations, as well as information, personal protective equipment, and training.

Q: What if I declined medical services during the OHP screen associated with a previous protocol?

A: A new exposure risk assessment and OHP medical screening questionnaire must be completed when submitting a new IBC or IACUC protocol for review and approval.