Business Travel Medicine

More and more often the market requires companies to send their staff on business trips around Italy but, with globalisation, business trips around the world are becoming more and more frequent. A trip can be linked to a meeting with a customer or to the opening of new international business branches, or to participation in conventions or specialised training courses abroad. For some companies, sending personnel abroad is intrinsic to their primary activity, such as construction companies that build infrastructure, companies for the production of specialised machinery that send personnel for the set-up of the plants, companies specialised in the extraction of natural resources.

The risks associated with a business trip for most employees are similar to those of a leisure trip, therefore linked to the endemic situation of the destination. For some, however, the risks may be unique and due to the extreme situations in which workers will operate: climate, altitude, scarcity of health facilities or problems related to personal safety.
The preventive analysis of the destination, the drafting of precise health and safety protocols, providing training and information to staff, are a must for the correct planning of a business trip abroad..

Ambimed, thanks to its experience in Travel Medicine, has applied these issues in the field of Occupational Medicine by creating the Business Travel Medicine unit to support its companies in all the needs related to travel.

It is important to understand the specific risks your employees may be exposed to and the precautions needed to protect their health. Many exotic destinations require mandatory vaccinations, while other vaccinations are recommended to offer greater safety.

Health Surveillance must not therefore be seen as a legal obligation, but as an opportunity to protect the health of the company's resources, to improve production efficiency from a preventive and therefore future perspective.

As required by the Legislative Decree 81/08 and through Chapter X, during work activities, including business trips, all risks including biological ones must be considered. The specific articles are: Art. 278 "Information on diseases that can be contracted" and Art. 279 "Prevention and control".

The company figures in charge, including the Protection and Prevention Service Manager, the HSE Manager and the Occupational Health physician must carry out a complete risk assessment and structure the consequent prevention and protection actions to manage potential hazards. The "aggravated generic risks" as defined in Ruling no. 11/2016 pursuant to Article 12, Legislative Decree no. 81/08 and later amendments and additions, must also be assessed.