title: Developing a checklist for collecting information from overseas hospitals.
abstract: Expatriate workers and their families may encounter difficulties and uncertainties when visiting local hospitals. These problems include differences in the medical system, higher healthcare costs, and language problems. Occupational health staff in companies need to know about the healthcare system, including emergency transportation arrangements, to reduce anxiety in workers and families attending hospitals. This study was designed to create a checklist to allow occupational health staff to collect information from overseas hospitals efficiently and effectively.
  
  
  
  We used documentary searches and the knowledge and experience of researchers to identify the support requirements of expatriate workers and drafted a checklist for information collection from overseas hospitals. The validity of the checklist was assessed in two stages. First, we interviewed health specialists caring for expatriate workers and their families and then tested the draft in international hospitals. We revised the draft based on our findings and again tested the new version in different overseas hospitals, enabling us to create a final version of the checklist.
  
  
  
  Our checklist contains 12 major categories: reception, administration, inpatient wards, available tests, outpatient clinics, emergency services, pediatrics, gynecology, dentistry, general health check-ups, vaccination services, and precautions against infection. These categories cover a total of 51 subcategories, each of which is further divided into a total of 131 smaller categories.
  
  
  
  Occupational health staff can use this checklist to gather information in order to provide comprehensive and effective support for expatriate workers attending hospitals. We recommend that the staff gather all possible information from hospital websites before visiting and use the visiting time to gather information available only on site. In order to gather as much information as accurately as possible, the staff are recommended to visit the facilities related to the checklist categories, that is, Japanese language reception, outpatient services, inpatient wards, emergency services, pediatrics, gynecology, general health check-up centers, and cardiac catheterization labs, and obtain information directly from doctors, nurses, and specialists working at the hospitals.
authors.affiliation: HOYA Corporation.|Occupational Health Training Center, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Juri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.affiliation: HOYA Corporation.|Department of Occupational Health Practice and Management, Institute of Industrial Ecological Science, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Health Practice and Management, Institute of Industrial Ecological Science, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kajiki
authors.affiliation: Brother Industries, Ltd.
authors.forename: Masamichi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uehara
authors.affiliation: HOYA Corporation.|Occupational Health Training Center, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.affiliation: HOYA Corporation.|Department of Occupational Health Practice and Management, Institute of Industrial Ecological Science, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Kiminori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Odagami
authors.affiliation: Occupational Health Training Center, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.|Komatsu, Ltd.
authors.forename: Kou
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiraoka
authors.affiliation: Komatsu, Ltd.
authors.forename: Shigemoto
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.affiliation: Occupational Health Training Center, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Igarashi
authors.affiliation: Occupational Health Training Center, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.|Department of Occupational Health Practice and Management, Institute of Industrial Ecological Science, University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D001208:Asia; D044466:Asian People; D057189:Checklist; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009786:Occupational Health Services