Occupational Medicine

Call 828-286-5508 for more information

Rutherford Regional Medical Center's Occupational Medicine Center provides a variety of cost-effective healthcare services to our businesses and industries. Our Center's objective is to provide the best possible care to injured workers and, at the same time, assist with reducing medical expenses and time away from the job. In today's climate, worker's compensation claims account for a large portion of industries' medical costs. Our goal is to assist you in attempting to decrease these expenditures. Our staff is also available to assist with case management.

Prevention and Health Screenings

Prevention and health screenings are provided on-site for our industries. Some of the services available include:

Physical Exams
Executive physicals
Drug Screenings
MRO (Certified Medical Review Officer) services available
Immunization program
Audiometric Testing
Pulmonary Function Testing
Breath Alcohol Testing
Treatment of work-related injuries
Follow-up care of injuries treated in the Emergency Department
Respirator Fit Testing
Work Functioning

The MRO (certified Medical Review Officer) service has been expanded to fill a vital role in the overall drug-testing process. Rutherford Regional Medical Center's MROs are licensed physicians with knowledge in the medical use of prescription drugs and the pharmacology and toxicology of illicit drugs.

The MRO Performs Four Main Functions:

Receives lab reports from the laboratory (as governed by regulations).
Reviews lab reports for integrity, authenticity, false negatives and false positives.
Interprets lab results, including verification of lab positives.
Reports lab results to employers (as defined by rules and regulations).

Our business is keeping your business healthy.

Emergency Room Visits/Work-related Injuries and Drug Screens:

Upon arrival at our Emergency Department, please direct your employee to explain the reason for their visit in detail: "I had an accident on the job and my employer sent me for a drug screen." Or, "I was injured on the job and my employer sent me for treatment of my injury and to have a drug screen."

This will ensure that your employee is seen as quickly as possible and in the most appropriate manner. If the employee has not suffered an injury, then it is not required that he/she sees a provider. If the employee does not have a life-threatening injury they can be seen by our Occupational Medicine staff. If the employee has been injured, we want to make sure they are seen by a provider as quickly as possible.

By explaining in detail the reason for their visit at registration, any unnecessary delays in being seen can be avoided. As you know, patients must be seen in the order of severity of symptoms, not in the order in which they arrived. Life-threatening emergencies will take precedent over non-life-threatening presentations. Unless the employee explains the reason for their visit up front, they may experience as extended wait since higher acuity cases must be prioritized.

Again, the most important informaton that can be provided by your employee upon arrival to the ED is the fact that they are here due to a work-related injury or for a work-related drug screen.

Please be assured that we will do our very best to see your employee as quickly as possible. I invite you to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

Occupational Medicine

During normal business hours (8:00am - 4:30pm), call (828) 286-5508 if an employee has an injury. After 4:30pm, employee may call ED registration with the same information by calling the switchboard at (828) 286-5000 and asking for ED Registration. You will need to provide the following information on the employee: Name, type of injury and billing information. Please also indicate if post-accident drug testing is needed. If drug testing is needed, please ensure employee has eScreen paper work when they report for drug screen. This will make the process much smoother for both your employee and our staff.

If employee is seen in the ED for an injury, please contact Occ Med for follow-up appointment if needed: (828) 286-5508.

If you need more information about Occupational Medicine services, please don't hesitate to contact us: (828) 286-5508.

Lab

If your employee comes to the ER after business hours, they will be directed to the Lab (after they register) if they need a drug screen or blood alcohol testing. We prefer that a supervisor accompanies the employee; however, at minimum, we need something in writing stating what testing is needed (UDS or Bld Alcohol or Both).

The employee/supervisor should tell registration that they are here for workplace testing. If the employee is not actually hurt (doesn't need to be seen by a provider) they will be registered and directed to walk to the Lab to have the testing done.

*Please remember that after hours and on weekends the lab has limited staffing and a wait could happen if lab staff are involved with STAT/emergent testing.

Lynn Reinhardt, Laboratory Director
(828) 286-5126 or 286-5135
Fax: (828) 286-5132

Imaging

If you have any questions or concerns regarding imaging, please contact me directly:

Steve O'Kelley, Imaging Director
(828) 286-5235

Physician Practices

For questions or concerns regarding any of our physician practices, please contact:

Ashley Toney, PRI
(828) 286-5511

Walk-in Clinic at Forest City Family Care

(828) 245-7626
Hours are:
Monday - Friday from 8:00am - 8:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Sunday: Closed

Business Services/Billing

We are happy to announce that as of September 2016 our new group of ED providers are part of the BCBS network.

If you have questions or concerns regarding scheduling or billing, please refer to the numbers below:

Customer Service: (828) 286-5307
Scheduling: (828) 286-5380
Patient Financial Services: (828) 286-5543
Patient Access Supervisor: (Please call the switchboard at 286-5000 and ask for Patient Access Supervisor)

Todd Hill, Director of Patient Financial Services
(828) 286-5057