Two services with coordinated duties
SRT Resolution 905/2015 develops the duties of Occupational Hygiene and Safety and Occupational Medicine services within the Argentine framework. It distinguishes shared tasks from specific responsibilities. Its approach integrates knowledge of the environment, tasks and health, while maintaining each service’s professional remit and the employer’s obligations.
What the annexes provide
Annex I covers shared duties; Annex II covers Hygiene and Safety duties; and Annex III covers Occupational Medicine duties. This structure helps check that tasks have an owner and that necessary exchanges are planned. It does not mean that any professional can interchangeably perform functions requiring a particular qualification or authorisation.
The risk map as a meeting point
Shared duties include surveying and preparing a risk map for each establishment, linking exposure, job-specific risks and preventive measures. The result should help prioritise and monitor action. Defining preventive responsibilities connects assessment, planning and follow-up without maintaining parallel processes that ignore the other service’s information.
Clinical information and confidentiality
Coordination does not mean indiscriminately sharing medical records. The resolution provides for procedures to secure confidential information within the medical service. Management needs to distinguish individual health information from preventive conclusions that other responsible people may use. An aggregate report on exposure or control needs does not necessarily require disclosing personal diagnoses to managers or administrators.
Example of coordinated action
In a hypothetical example, a process changes and new potential exposures arise. Hygiene and Safety reviews conditions and measures; Occupational Medicine assesses relevant information within its remit. Both coordinate recommendations and follow-up. The company allocates resources and checks implementation, keeping clinical data requiring restricted access separate.
Application and follow-up
The resolution relates to Decree 1338/96 and the rules applicable to services according to the establishment’s activity and characteristics. A review should check scope and supplementary provisions. Hiring two services does not itself guarantee coordination: objectives, exchanges, responsibilities and review of results should be documented. This entry explains duties without setting universal staffing or time requirements for every company.
