Occupational medical examinations: managing Colombia’s Resolution 1843 of 2025 with software
An occupational medical examination does not end when the worker attends the appointment. The organisation still needs to receive the occupational medical opinion, communicate it, manage recommendations and verify workplace adjustments when required. Unanswered emails, documents in separate folders and tasks without an owner often appear between those stages.
Colombia’s Resolution 1843 of 2025 provides a specific reason to review this workflow. Technology can help organise it when the process preserves medical independence and distinguishes preventive management from clinical information.
Turn obligations into verifiable milestones
Article 5 of Resolution 1843 of 2025 (in Spanish) addresses sending job profiles to the examiner, implementing adjustments based on recommendations or restrictions within twenty working days after examinations, and communicating the opinion to the worker in writing. Configure working days, not calendar days.
The entry on health surveillance provides context. For day-to-day management, assign evidence to each milestone: profile sent, appointment attended, opinion received, communication delivered, action assigned and follow-up completed. A single “examination completed” status hides work that remains outstanding.
Prepare information before the appointment
HR can provide job identification and changes; OSH can provide exposure and working conditions; the healthcare provider can define the information needed for assessment. The profile sent should carry a version so that a later examination is not interpreted against an outdated description.
- Connect the individual, job, site and tasks actually performed.
- Describe relevant exposure using information validated by OSH.
- Identify the reason for the examination and its scheduling owner.
- Record transmission to the provider and scheduling issues.
- Establish a rescheduling route that keeps the outstanding need visible.
The schedule should distinguish a cancellation, a completed examination and an opinion not yet received. Each requires a different response. Before uploading documents, agree which channels the provider will use and which formats the authorised team can accept.
Separate the occupational opinion from clinical records
Health data protection must be reflected in screens, attachments, notifications and exports. Design access so that each participant receives only what their role requires. A supervisor may need to know an operational adjustment without receiving diagnoses or clinical documentation.
During software testing, sign in as a supervisor, an HR user and a health professional. Check searches, previews and downloads as well as the main screen. Correct permissions on a case file achieve little if an automated email reproduces information the recipient should not see.
An example of recommendation follow-up
Consider an illustrative case where the opinion recommends temporarily modifying a task. The authorised owner records the operational instruction, its effective period and the review date. The supervisor proposes how to redistribute work; OSH checks the suitability of the measure, and the worker receives the necessary information.
Sending an email does not close the action. Closure follows documented implementation and the planned verification. If the adjustment needs resources, escalate the request to someone who can authorise them. Refer clinical uncertainty to the competent professional instead of resolving it through an administrative interpretation of the opinion.
In a test calendar, include public holidays, a rescheduled appointment and a recommendation received late. Review how the deadline is calculated from the regulatory milestone and which alerts appear. The system should reconstruct the sequence without retrospectively changing the examination date.
What to examine in a demonstration
Request a complete walkthrough from the job profile to evidence of an implemented adjustment. Check backup owners, access restrictions, change history and action status. Compare an active case with an archived one: both require clear retention and access rules.
Give each step an acceptance criterion that a reviewer can actually observe. For example, an appointment should display its current status and history, while a recommendation should identify its responsible person and next review. This prevents a general demonstration from overlooking the hand-offs that matter in everyday work.
The article on coordinating workplace adjustments develops cross-department responsibilities; the software security review helps assess access controls. Explore Sabentis OSH software using this workflow as a demonstration script, and confirm which configuration and scope meet your operation’s requirements.
Checklist for preventive follow-up after a medical assessment
Test the workflow with fictional documents before loading real cases. Examine what each participant receives and how problems are resolved, without turning administrative follow-up into a shared archive of clinical records.
- Simulate a clinical attachment received by mistake and define who restricts access and redirects it to the appropriate custodian.
- Check that a supervisor receives the necessary operational adjustment without gaining access to diagnoses, additional test results or medical history.
- Enter a recommendation requiring clarification and keep follow-up open while the competent professional responds to the specific question.
- Test replacement of the responsible person during an absence and verify that outstanding actions remain assigned and actively monitored.
- Compare evidence of communication to the worker with evidence of implementation: each should demonstrate a different stage of the process.
Frequently asked questions
Should HR keep the complete occupational medical record?
Not as a general rule. Resolution 1843 defines custody and clinical confidentiality; article 30 includes an exception subject to specific conditions. For ordinary employer management, use the occupational medical opinion and information needed to implement measures, without opening the clinical file to HR staff.
Does late receipt of the opinion restart the adjustment deadline?
Do not configure an automatic restart. Article 5 links the deadline to performance of the assessment, rather than a subsequent software status change. Record delayed receipt, escalate the problem and coordinate the necessary response without rewriting the original assessment date in the system.
Can software decide that a restriction is no longer needed?
It should not replace the competent professional’s decision. A review date should trigger a consultation, not automatically remove a restriction. Preserve the applicable opinion and request clarification when its duration, the task conditions or the scope of the recommendation remains uncertain to the operational team.
How can an adjustment be evidenced without disclosing the diagnosis?
Record the operational measure, affected task, owner, implementation date and planned verification. Use proportionate evidence such as a changed assignment or workstation adjustment. Keep the clinical explanation within its authorised setting rather than copying it into photographs, shared comments or general notifications to other departments.
Legislation and consulted sources
- Resolution 1843 of 2025. Colombia: articles 4, 5, 30 and 31 on medical opinions, employer action, custody and confidentiality. Spanish text.
- Law 1581 of 2012. Colombia: personal data protection and health information as sensitive data. Spanish text.
Sources consulted on 6 October 2026.
