Occupational form
Pre-employment medical
A pre-employment medical asks whether this person can do this job at hire, with or without restrictions. Employers and occupational-health vendors each print a PDF. You are not hiring them. You are matching medical findings to a job description. Human-rights rules still apply: collect what the job requires, not a fishing history.
Fit for which job
If there is no job description, ask for one. Warehouse picking, food handling, and a software desk are not the same exam. Safety-sensitive work (driving, heights, healthcare exposure, lone industrial posts) needs a higher bar for sudden incapacity and for drugs that sedate.
Use the employer’s current form. A police or fire recruit medical is a different, usually stricter, protocol. A TB form is often an add-on, not a substitute.
Do not over-collect
Pregnancy plans, random genetic family history, and unrelated mental-health detail often do not belong on a hire form. If the PDF asks for something you cannot justify against the bona fide job requirement, skip or narrow it and say why in the chart — or send it back to occupational health.
Who completes it
The clinician the employer named — often occupational health, sometimes the family physician. If you are the FP, you still need the job demands. Do not certify “fit for any work.” Do not do a police or aviation medical unless you are designated for that exam.
How to complete it
- Job title and the physical/cognitive demands on the form or attachment.
- Conditions that affect those demands: unstable angina for a ladder job, uncontrolled seizures for driving, active pulmonary TB for healthcare.
- Medications that sedate if the job is safety-sensitive.
- Vision, hearing, BP, urine, CXR, immunizations — only as this form requires.
- Fit / fit with restrictions / not fit, with a review date if not fit.
- Restrictions in task language: no lift >20 kg, no nights, no patient-facing until TST is read.
- Who receives the result. The employer often gets fit/not-fit, not your full chart.
Worked example (fictional)
Pre-employment — food plant, family practice
Fictional 27-year-old. Do not copy into a real employer form.
Job: packing line, standing 8 h, lift 15 kg, no commercial driving. Exam: BP 124/78, no limiting MSK finding, no sedating meds. Hearing adequate conversation. No active infection. Immunizations: Hep A not required by this employer; tetanus up to date 2023. Fit for the described packing job without restrictions. Not a fire-recruit medical. Not a driver medical. Result to occupational health as fit/not-fit only. I am the FP.
Why occupational health sends it back
- “Fit for work” with no job named.
- Full diagnosis dump to the employer when they asked only for restrictions.
- Skipping a test the form requires (vision, TST).
- Using a police or DOT protocol on a retail hire.
- Unsigned or missing identifiers.
Draft the pre-employment medical from the visit
In Scribeberry, open Forms, search for pre-employment medical, or upload the employer’s current PDF. Generate from the encounter and your notes, then review every field before you sign. Scribeberry does not pre-map this form. You still review and sign. Scribeberry does not send results to the employer.
Frequently asked questions
Can the employer see the whole exam?
Usually they need fitness and restrictions, not a narrative chart. Follow the form and privacy law in your province. When in doubt, send restrictions to occupational health, not to the hiring manager’s inbox.
Is this a fitness-for-work after injury?
No. Pre-employment is at hire. Return-to-work after injury is a different form. Do not mix WCB restrictions into a hire exam unless that is the question.
What if I think they cannot do the job?
Say not fit, or fit with restrictions, with the medical reason in the occupational-health copy. Do not invent a job they could do instead.
Does Scribeberry send this to the employer?
No. Scribeberry helps you complete the PDF. You return it through the occupational-health channel. Keep a copy in the chart.
Forms
