Recording occupation is an important part of emergency care

The effect of disease on work (and work on disease) is a very important part of medical care, particularly in management of acute disease. Many health-care professionals have little knowledge of the world of work outside healthcare, and often feel inadequate to ask questions about it. It is therefor not surprising that occupational asthma is widely under-recognised during acute admissions to hospital. This paper shows that the triggers for the acute asthma attacks are widely omitted from medical records, and that records of drug allergy (something within general medical knowledge) was recorded in 66-85% of admissions, but information on work was missing in 85-95%. The introduction of a proforma asking about work improved  work information to 63%. It seems that completing forms provides information more reliably than taking an uninformed free history from the patient.

References

	Ellis PR, Walters GI, Missed opportunities to identify occupational asthma in acute secondary care , Occup Med, 2018;68:56-59,https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqx167

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