Employer Physical Exams | Occucare International
Occucare International delivers physician-governed physical exams to construction, industrial, energy, and DoD employers – calibrated to the actual physical demands of the role, reviewed by board-certified occupational medicine physicians, and documented in the format your safety, HR, and workers’ compensation infrastructure depends on. A physical exam from a retail clinic or general practice is a clinical event. A physical exam from Occucare is a defensible record – built to survive OSHA inspection, ADA challenge, workers’ compensation dispute, and the next general contractor pre-qualification request.
Across the Houston Ship Channel, Galleria District, North Houston, Deer Park, La Porte, Channelview, Sugar Land, and the broader Texas Industrial Corridor – and across our 3,000+ clinic network for multi-site and international employers – every Occucare physical exam runs on the same protocol framework. Same job-demand calibration. Same physician review. Same documentation standard. Whether it’s a pre-employment physical for a new ironworker on a Gulf Coast job site, a DOT recertification for a CDL driver, a fit-for-duty evaluation after a head injury, or a periodic surveillance physical for a silica-exposed crew on an international operation, the program runs as one system, not a sequence of disconnected appointments.
Board-Certified Occupational Medicine Physicians
Same-Day Results for Most Examinations
ADA-Compliant Pre-Employment Protocols
OSHA, NIOSH, and DOT-Aligned Standards
FMCSA-Certified Medical Examiners on Staff
3,000+ Clinic Network for Multi-Site Coverage
Clinic Hours
- Monday - Friday 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM CST
- +1 713 802 0801
What Is an Employer Physical Exam? A Definition for Safety and HR Leaders
Employer physical exams are the diagnostic foundation of every other occupational health service. Without a properly conducted, occupationally-contextualized physical exam, every clearance determination downstream – pre-employment hire, DOT certification, return-to-work clearance, surveillance compliance – is built on incomplete clinical data. The fragmented programs that fail employers do not fail because of any single missed test. They fail because the physical exam at the foundation of the program was never built to support what the employer actually needs.
An employer physical exam is a structured clinical evaluation conducted by a physician – calibrated to the specific job demands of the role, aligned to the federal standards governing the employee’s exposure profile, and documented in a format that supports operational, regulatory, and workers’ compensation decisions. It is fundamentally different from a personal annual physical: the patient is not the customer; the employer is. Findings are interpreted against the requirements of the job, not against general wellness. Documentation is built for OSHA inspectors, DOT auditors, and workers’ compensation adjusters – not for a patient portal.
In full operational scope, employer physical exams cover pre-employment baseline examinations, post-offer pre-placement evaluations, periodic surveillance physicals required under OSHA-regulated exposure standards, DOT physicals for commercial motor vehicle operators, fit-for-duty evaluations after injury or extended leave, exit physicals at termination, return-to-duty examinations, and specialty physicals for safety-sensitive roles including respirator users, confined space entrants, and crane operators. Each examination type carries different regulatory requirements, different documentation standards, and different operational consequences – and a fragmented program that treats them all as a generic ‘physical’ produces a gap at every layer.
Common Questions Employers Ask Before Selecting a Physical Exam Provider
A regular annual physical is patient-centered preventive care - the patient is the customer, findings are evaluated against general wellness benchmarks, and documentation is built for the patient's medical record. An employer physical exam is occupationally-contextualized - the employer is the customer, findings are evaluated against the actual physical demands and regulatory requirements of the role, and documentation is built to support pre-employment decisions, regulatory clearance, surveillance compliance, and workers' compensation defensibility. A general practitioner conducting an annual physical has no obligation to evaluate respirator capacity, lift tolerance against job demands, or exposure-specific surveillance criteria. An occupational medicine physician conducting an employer physical does.
Pre-employment physical exams are legal under the Americans with Disabilities Act when conducted post-offer (after a conditional offer of employment has been extended), administered uniformly to all candidates entering the same job classification, and limited to evaluation against the essential functions of the position. Pre-offer medical examinations are not permitted under ADA. Occucare's pre-employment protocols are designed to be ADA-compliant by structure: examinations are scheduled post-offer, calibrated to documented essential functions of the role, and produce determinations defensible against EEOC review. Our documentation standard is built to protect the employer in both injury claims and discrimination challenges.
A standard pre-employment physical exam takes 30 to 60 minutes depending on the components included (drug screen, audiometric, vision, respirator clearance, vaccinations). Most results - including drug screens reviewed by our Medical Review Officers, physical clearances, and DOT certifications - are delivered same-day or next-day. Surveillance physicals requiring spirometry interpretation, audiometric comparison to baseline, or specialty consultation typically deliver within 48 to 72 hours. For high-volume employers, scheduled cohort examinations can be completed and reported within a single business cycle to keep onboarding pipelines and project mobilizations moving.
Who This Physical Exam Program Is Built For
Occucare’s physical exam program is designed for the employers and decision-makers responsible for workforce composition, regulatory clearance, and the financial consequences of a workforce that is not properly screened, cleared, or monitored – not for individual patients seeking a primary care annual.
HR Compliance Leads managing pre-employment screening cycles, post-offer medical clearance workflows, multi-site hire pipelines, and DOT driver qualification files
Corporate Safety Directors and EHS Managers responsible for OSHA medical surveillance program execution, respirator clearance, and post-incident fit-for-duty determinations
Risk Managers quantifying the financial exposure created when pre-existing conditions enter the workforce undetected and surface as first-90-day workers’ compensation claims
Project Executives at General Contractors enforcing subcontractor physical exam standards across job sites and managing the documentation requirements imposed by project owners
Operations Executives at Energy and Industrial Employers managing the surveillance physical calendar across silica, lead, asbestos, noise, and other regulated exposure populations
Fleet and Logistics Managers maintaining current DOT physicals across CDL workforces and absorbing the operational cost of every lapsed Medical Examiner’s Certificate
Industries served
commercial and industrial construction, heavy civil contracting, industrial manufacturing, upstream/midstream/downstream energy, petrochemical processing, Department of Defense contracting, electrical contracting, and maritime and shipyard operations across the Texas Industrial Corridor, and Gulf Coast energy operations.
What Happens When Employer Physical Exams Are Treated as a Generic Clinical Service
When the physical exam at the foundation of your workforce health program is treated as a checkbox rather than a calibrated clinical decision, the failures do not appear in the exam report. They appear ninety days later, when a worker who was cleared for a job they were not physically capable of performing files a workers’ compensation claim – and the documentation that should have caught the contraindication shows that nothing in the screening was actually screening anything. If any of the following describes your current physical exam workflow, the foundation of your occupational health program has gaps that a properly built program is designed to close.
Generic Clinical Templates Pulled From Retail Clinic Protocols
A new hire is sent to a retail clinic. The clinic conducts a generic adult physical – vital signs, basic auscultation, a one-page form returned to HR. There is no information about the role’s actual physical demands, no awareness of the OSHA respiratory protection medical evaluation requirements that apply to the position, no calibration to lift tolerance, climb tolerance, or confined-space fitness. The exam clears the candidate to start. Three months later, the candidate is on a workers’ compensation claim for a back injury sustained on a routine lift their physiology was never evaluated against. The clinic has no liability. The employer absorbs the claim, the EMR damage, and the indirect cost multiplier. The physical exam was administrative theater.
Pre-Employment Physicals Conducted Without Job-Demand Documentation
ADA compliance for post-offer pre-employment medical examinations requires that the examination be evaluated against the documented essential functions of the role. When the physical exam provider does not have those job demands in front of them – the actual lift weights, the climb requirements, the respirator wear duration, the heat exposure profile – the examination cannot be legally calibrated to the role. The employer absorbs two compounding risks: contraindications that would have been caught in a properly calibrated exam are missed, and clearance determinations made without documented job-demand reference are not defensible against EEOC discrimination challenges. The exam that should have protected the employer in two directions protects them in neither.
DOT Physicals Conducted by Examiners Not on the National Registry
Under FMCSA 49 CFR 391, DOT physicals must be conducted by Medical Examiners certified by FMCSA and listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. A DOT physical conducted by a non-certified examiner is not a valid DOT physical – and a fleet operating drivers cleared by non-certified examiners is operating drivers without valid medical certification, regardless of what the certificate says on its face. The exposure is not theoretical: FMCSA audits routinely identify non-Registry examiners, and the resulting compliance cost – driver downtime, retroactive recertification, audit penalties – exceeds the cost of using a certified examiner from the start by an order of magnitude.
Surveillance Physicals Documented in the Safety Manual but Not Executed in the Field
OSHA medical surveillance requirements for silica (29 CFR 1926.1153), asbestos (1926.1101), lead (1926.62), noise (1910.95), hexavalent chromium (1910.1026), and other regulated substances mandate baseline, periodic, and exit physical examinations for exposed employees. Many employers have surveillance physical schedules documented in their written safety programs but lack the operational infrastructure to execute them – no physician reviewing results against substance-specific medical removal criteria, no scheduling system tracking which workers are due for periodic examinations, and no documentation trail proving the program runs as written. The employer with a documented program that is not executed is in a worse legal position than the employer with no program, because the documentation proves they knew the requirement and failed to meet it.
Fit-for-Duty Evaluations Reduced to a Note From the Treating Physician
After an injury, an extended leave, a head injury, or a behavioral incident, the determination of whether a worker is fit to return to safety-sensitive duties is a liability decision – not a wellness decision. When that determination is reduced to a one-line note from a treating physician with no occupational medicine training, no awareness of the actual safety-sensitive demands of the role, and no independent evaluation framework, the employer is making a return-to-work decision on clinical evidence that will not survive the deposition that follows the next incident. Fit-for-duty conducted properly is an independent medical evaluation by a physician trained in occupational fitness determinations – not a copy-and-pasted release form.
Physical Exam Records Scattered Across Vendors With No Centralized Documentation
Pre-employment physicals from one clinic. DOT physicals from another. Surveillance examinations from a third. Fit-for-duty notes from various treating physicians. When an OSHA compliance officer requests medical surveillance records, when a workers’ compensation adjuster requests pre-injury baselines, when a general contractor’s pre-qualification team requests workforce clearance documentation – the employer’s HR and safety teams spend days reconstructing a record that should have existed continuously. The administrative cost is one expense. The compliance exposure created by gaps that the reconstruction reveals is the cost that actually moves the budget.
The Regulatory Framework Governing Employer Physical Exams
Employer physical exams are not a discretionary practice. Specific federal standards mandate which workers must be examined, which clinical components are required, how findings must be interpreted, and how results must be documented – and which standards apply depends on the industry, the exposure profile, and the safety-sensitive nature of each role. The primary regulatory frameworks governing employer physical exams are:
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)
Mandates medical surveillance examinations for employees exposed to silica, asbestos, lead, noise, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, benzene, formaldehyde, and other regulated substances. Requires respiratory protection medical evaluations under 29 CFR 1910.134 prior to respirator fit testing. Defines baseline, periodic, and exit examination requirements specific to each regulated exposure.
DOT / FMCSA (Department of Transportation / Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration)
Mandates physical examinations under 49 CFR 391 for commercial motor vehicle operators, conducted by Medical Examiners certified on the FMCSA National Registry, with results uploaded to the Registry and Medical Examiner's Certificates issued in compliance with current standards.
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
Governs the timing, scope, and documentation of pre-employment medical examinations. Prohibits pre-offer medical examinations. Requires post-offer examinations to be calibrated to documented essential functions and applied uniformly across all candidates entering the same job classification. Requires confidentiality protocols for medical information separate from personnel files.
EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
Enforces ADA standards for pre-employment medical examinations and reviews discrimination challenges based on medical clearance determinations. Examiner documentation must support defensibility against EEOC review.
NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)
Sets technical standards for spirometry testing in surveillance physicals, audiometric testing protocols, and technician certification requirements that govern the clinical components of OSHA-mandated examinations.
Texas Workers' Compensation Act
Defines the workers' compensation rules that intersect with pre-employment screening, return-to-work physical examinations, and the documentation standards that protect employers in claim disputes within Texas jurisdiction.
Occucare’s physical exam protocols are aligned to every applicable federal and Texas state standard – which means every exam component, every clearance determination, and every clinical finding is documented to the same regulatory criteria that OSHA inspectors, FMCSA auditors, EEOC investigators, and workers’ compensation adjusters use to evaluate employer compliance.
Occucare's Physical Exam Program - Detailed Examination Types
Occucare delivers the full spectrum of employer physical examinations under one program, with physician governance, centralized documentation, and integrated workflow built into every examination type. Each physical exam category below operates within the same standardized protocol framework regardless of whether the work is delivered at our clinic, onsite at your facility, or through our 3,000+ clinic network.
01 - Pre-Employment Physical Exams
The pre-employment physical exam is the first and most cost-effective intervention in the workforce health lifecycle. The contraindication caught in a pre-employment physical is the workers’ compensation claim that never gets filed, the recordable injury that never enters your OSHA 300 log, and the early-tenure attrition cost that never hits your operations budget. Occucare’s pre-employment physicals are conducted post-offer, calibrated to documented essential functions of the role, and structured to be ADA-compliant by design.
Standard pre-employment examination components include comprehensive medical history review, vital signs, cardiovascular screening, musculoskeletal evaluation against documented job demands, vision screening, audiometric baseline, drug screening through Medical Review Officer protocols, vaccination review and administration where required, and respirator medical clearance for positions requiring respiratory protection. Each component is configured per role and per industry – not as a one-size-fits-all checklist. The output: a defensible pre-employment record that meets every regulatory requirement and identifies the contraindications that actually matter for your workforce.
02 - Pre-Placement Physical Exams
Pre-placement physicals are the post-offer, job-specific evaluations that confirm a candidate can physically perform the essential duties of the role. Where pre-employment physicals establish a baseline health status, pre-placement physicals establish job match – the functional capacity, lift tolerance, mobility, and ergonomic compatibility required to perform the actual work without elevated injury risk. For construction and industrial employers, pre-placement testing is the difference between a workforce that performs and a workforce that generates first-90-day workers’ compensation claims at predictable rates.
Pre-placement examinations include Functional Capacity Evaluations, lift testing calibrated to actual job demands, range-of-motion and strength assessments, ergonomic match-to-task evaluations, and physician-reviewed clearance determinations with defensible documentation under ADA and EEOC requirements. The protocols are designed not just to screen workers, but to produce the evidentiary record that protects the employer in both injury claims and discrimination challenges.
03 - DOT Physicals
Commercial motor vehicle operators are required to maintain a current Medical Examiner’s Certificate under 49 CFR 391, issued by FMCSA-certified medical examiners working from the National Registry. A single expired DOT physical pulls a driver off the route and creates immediate revenue loss for fleet operators, schedule disruption for dispatch, and DOT compliance exposure that compounds across audit cycles.
Occucare DOT physical examinations program delivers FMCSA-certified examinations with same-day Medical Examiner’s Certificates, direct upload to the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners, and proactive recertification tracking that prevents lapse-driven driver downtime. We handle initial certifications, recertifications, returning-to-duty examinations after medical disqualification, and medical variance applications for drivers requiring accommodation under FMCSA medical standards.
04 - Periodic Surveillance Physicals
Periodic surveillance physicals are the OSHA-mandated examinations conducted at regulated intervals for employees exposed to silica, asbestos, lead, noise, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, benzene, formaldehyde, and other substance-specific exposures. Each regulated substance carries its own examination interval, its own clinical component requirements, and its own medical removal criteria – and an employer’s surveillance physical program is only as strong as the physician interpreting the findings against those substance-specific standards.
Occucare’s surveillance physicals include the substance-specific examination components mandated by each applicable OSHA standard, NIOSH-aligned spirometry interpretation, audiometric testing with comparison to baseline and Standard Threshold Shift evaluation, biological monitoring where required (lead blood levels, cadmium urine levels), and physician-reviewed determinations against medical removal criteria. Findings are documented in a format that supports continuous compliance – not reconstructed reactively when an OSHA inspector arrives.
05 - Fit-for-Duty Physical Exams
Fit-for-duty evaluations determine whether an employee can safely perform their assigned duties – typically after an injury, illness, extended leave, head injury or concussion, behavioral incident, or any event that raises a defensible concern about the employee’s capacity to perform safety-sensitive work. The fit-for-duty exams is not a wellness check. It is a liability decision with direct consequence: a worker returned to a crane, a confined space, or a high-voltage environment without proper clearance is a deposition question your safety director does not want to answer.
Occucare’s fit-for-duty exams deliver independent medical evaluations conducted by board-certified occupational medicine physicians, with cognitive screening, physical capacity assessment, and job-specific fitness determinations communicated to the employer in a format that supports immediate operational decisions. Determinations are defensible under ADA reasonable accommodation requirements, and documentation protects the employer from negligent-return claims when an injury occurs after clearance.
06 - Return-to-Work Physical Exams
Return-to-work physicals are the post-injury and post-leave examinations that produce the clearance determination – full duty, modified duty, or continued restriction – that governs how and when a worker re-enters the operation. The return-to-work physical is also the documentation point where active case management, occupational health protocols, and workers’ compensation timelines converge, and the quality of the examination directly determines claim duration, indirect cost exposure, and re-injury risk.
Occucare’s return-to-work physicals are integrated with our case management program – meaning the physician conducting the clearance examination has direct visibility into the injury history, the treatment course, the functional progress, and the actual physical demands of the role the worker is returning to. Restrictions are documented in operationally specific language, not vague clinical phrasing. Modified-duty parameters are calibrated to actual available work. The result: cleaner return-to-work decisions, shorter claim duration, and a documentation record that supports closure rather than dispute.
07 - Exit and Termination Physicals
Exit physicals at termination are required under several OSHA surveillance standards (silica, asbestos, lead, hexavalent chromium, and others) and are operationally critical even where not strictly mandated. The exit physical produces the end-of-employment baseline that protects the employer against post-termination claims for occupationally-acquired conditions – by establishing on the record what the worker’s clinical status was at the moment of separation.
Occucare’s exit physical protocols are calibrated to each applicable OSHA surveillance standard, structured to produce defensible end-of-employment documentation, and integrated with the surveillance physical history maintained across the worker’s tenure. The result: a continuous medical surveillance record from hire to termination that supports continuous compliance and protects the employer against the post-termination claims that fragmented programs invite.
08 - Specialty Physical Examinations
Specialty physicals address the safety-sensitive roles where general examination protocols are insufficient – respirator clearance for workers in regulated dust, fume, or chemical environments; confined space physicals for tank entry, vault work, and excavation operations; crane operator physicals under ASME and OSHA standards; fire brigade physicals under NFPA 1582; law enforcement physicals; HAZWOPER physicals for hazmat response personnel; and other specialty examinations defined by industry-specific or regulatory frameworks.
Occucare’s specialty physical exams are conducted under the applicable industry standard, by physicians trained in the specific clearance criteria for each examination type, and documented to support both regulatory compliance and the operational reality that workers in these roles cannot afford a clearance determination that does not survive scrutiny.
How Occucare's Physical Exam Program Works - From Job-Demand Analysis to Continuous Documentation
Step 1
Job-Demand Analysis and Protocol Calibration
Before any physical exam is scheduled, Occucare’s occupational medicine team works with your HR and safety leadership to document the actual physical demands and exposure profiles of each job classification in scope. Lift tolerances, climb requirements, respirator wear duration, heat exposure, confined space frequency, regulated substance exposures, and safety-sensitive responsibilities are captured per role. This is the calibration data that distinguishes an occupationally-contextualized physical from a generic clinical template – and it is the documentation foundation that protects every clearance determination downstream against ADA and EEOC challenge.
Step 2
Examination Type Mapping by Role and Regulatory Profile
Once job demands are documented, our occupational medicine physicians map the required examination types to each role: which positions require pre-placement Functional Capacity Evaluations, which require respirator medical clearance, which fall under OSHA surveillance schedules, which require DOT certification, and which trigger specialty examination protocols. The output is a workforce-wide examination matrix that defines what is required, when it is required, and what documentation each examination must produce.
Step 3
Examination Delivery - Clinic, Onsite, or Network
Physical exams are delivered through whichever channel fits your operational requirements. Our clinic handles scheduled and walk-in employer physicals for local workforces. Onsite teams deploy directly to your job site or facility for large mobilizations and surveillance cohorts. For multi-site and multi-state operations, our 3,000-clinic vetted network applies the same protocols, documentation standards, and physician oversight across every location your workforce operates.
Step 4
Physician Review and Clearance Determination
Every physical exam result is reviewed by Occucare’s occupational medicine physicians before any clearance, classification, or clinical finding is communicated to the employer. Drug test reviews follow DOT 49 CFR Part 40 protocols through our Medical Review Officers. Respirator clearances are determined against OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134 medical questionnaire and clinical findings. Surveillance physicals are interpreted against substance-specific medical removal criteria. DOT examinations are certified through FMCSA-credentialed Medical Examiners and uploaded to the National Registry.
Step 5
Employer-Formatted Reporting and Documentation Storage
Physical exam results are reported in the format your safety team and HR department need to make operational decisions – clearance status, restrictions, certification expirations, surveillance findings, and renewal calendars – not in clinical reports formatted for a patient portal. Documentation is maintained in centralized employer records accessible to authorized HR and safety personnel, structured to support OSHA inspection, FMCSA audit, ADA challenge, and workers’ compensation defense at any time without reactive reconstruction.
Step 6
Renewal Tracking and Continuous Compliance
Occucare manages your physical exam calendar as an ongoing function. DOT physicals are tracked toward expiration with proactive recertification scheduling. Surveillance physicals are scheduled at regulated intervals. Fit-for-duty cases are tracked through closure. New hires are onboarded into the program at intake, and exit physicals are scheduled at termination. Your workforce physical examination status is current at all times – not reconstructed reactively when an audit, an incident, or a contract pre-qualification request arrives.
Generic Retail Clinic Physical vs. Occucare's Occupationally-Calibrated Physical
| Factor | Generic Retail Clinic Physical | Occucare Occupationally-Calibrated Physical |
| Provider training | General medicine, no occupational training | Board-certified occupational medicine physicians |
| Job-demand calibration | None – generic adult exam template | Calibrated to documented essential functions of the role |
| ADA compliance posture | Not structurally designed for ADA defensibility | Post-offer, role-calibrated, EEOC-defensible by design |
| DOT examiner certification | Variable – often non-Registry examiners | FMCSA-certified Medical Examiners on the National Registry |
| OSHA surveillance interpretation | None – substance-specific criteria not applied | Substance-specific medical removal criteria applied by physician |
| Respirator clearance protocol | Generic questionnaire, often unreviewed | OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134 protocol with physician review |
| Documentation format | Patient-portal clinical notes | Employer-formatted, audit-ready, centralized |
| Multi-site consistency | Different vendors, different protocols | One program, 3,000+ network locations, unified protocols |
| Renewal tracking | None – employer manages spreadsheet | Proactive notifications across DOT, surveillance, and clearance cycles |
| Audit readiness | Records reconstructed reactively after notice | Continuously audit-ready across the full workforce |
| Integration with injury management | None – exam is a one-time clinical event | Integrated with case management and 93% onsite injury rate |
Your physical exam program is either the foundation of a workforce health system or it is a clinical event your HR team books and forgets.
Physical Exams Across High-Regulation Employer Segments
Construction and General Contracting
Construction employers carry the broadest physical exam burden of any industry - pre-employment physicals for high-turnover crews, drug testing mandated by general contractors and project owners, OSHA medical surveillance for silica and asbestos exposure, respirator medical clearance for dust environments, DOT physicals for CDL operators, and pre-placement Functional Capacity Evaluations for roles with elevated lift and climb demands. Occucare construction workforce physicals program consolidates every examination type under one provider with onsite capability for large mobilizations and EMR-protective conservative care that keeps your project pre-qualification posture intact.
Industrial Manufacturing and Logistics
Manufacturing employers managing chemical exposure, repetitive-motion injury risk, noise hazards, and ergonomic exposure across multiple shifts and facilities require physical exam programs that scale without losing protocol consistency. Occucare's industrial program standardizes pre-employment, surveillance, and fit-for-duty physicals across your operations - ensuring a worker examined at your facility and a worker examined at your Dallas distribution center receive identical clinical quality and documentation standards.
Oil and Gas and Energy Operations
Upstream, midstream, and downstream energy employers face physical exam requirements that include DOT and PHMSA-aligned drug testing and medical examinations for pipeline workers, OEUK-aligned medical clearances for offshore operations, respirator medical clearance for refinery and chemical processing environments, and surveillance physicals for benzene, hydrogen sulfide, and other regulated exposures. Occucare supports energy employers through our clinic, onsite deployment to remote well sites and processing facilities, and our national clinic network for distributed workforce coverage.
Department of Defense Contractors
DoD contractors face physical exam requirements that layer federal OSHA mandates on top of contract-specific requirements from DCMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and project-specific safety plans. Occucare's DoD physical exam program addresses the dual regulatory environment - meeting both federal occupational health standards and the additional medical examination, clearance, and documentation requirements imposed by government contract specifications and overseas deployment protocols.
Maritime and Shipyard Operations
Maritime employers operating under OSHA Maritime Standards (29 CFR 1915) face physical exam requirements specific to shipyard employment, marine terminal operations, and vessel operations. Occucare's maritime physical exam program addresses the unique exposure profiles of shipyard workers - confined space atmospheres, coating and blasting operations, vessel medical clearances, and noise exposure levels that consistently exceed general industry thresholds.
Electrical Contractors and Specialty Trades
Electrical contractors managing high-voltage exposure, fall risk, and arc-flash environments require physical exam protocols specific to the operational realities of their workforce. Occucare's electrical contractor program addresses the screening, clearance, and surveillance physicals unique to specialty trade contractors operating across construction and industrial job sites.
Why Occucare - Physician-Governed Physical Exams, Not Generic Clinical Visits
Most clinics conduct physical exams. Occucare governs them. The difference is the physician layer between every clinical finding and every employer-facing decision – and the integrated infrastructure that connects every physical exam type into one continuous workforce health record.
Single-source physical exam program
Pre-employment, pre-placement, DOT, fit-for-duty, surveillance, return-to-work, exit, and specialty physicals - all under one program, one physician team, one documentation standard. No coordinating between vendors who do not communicate with each other.
Board-certified occupational medicine physicians reviewing every result
Not technicians. Not general practitioners unfamiliar with OSHA surveillance criteria, ADA pre-employment requirements, or FMCSA medical standards. Physicians who understand your regulatory environment and the operational consequence of every clearance decision.
FMCSA-certified Medical Examiners on staff
Every DOT physical conducted by an examiner currently on the FMCSA National Registry, with same-day Medical Examiner's Certificates and direct Registry upload - eliminating the compliance exposure that fleets absorb when DOT physicals are conducted by non-Registry examiners.
ADA-compliant by structural design
Pre-employment protocols built post-offer, calibrated to documented essential functions, and applied uniformly within job classifications - producing clearance determinations defensible against EEOC review.
3,000+ clinic network for national and multi-site coverage
One program, consistent protocols, standardized documentation, physician oversight at every location. Your physical exam program does not degrade when your workforce operates outside Houston.
Employer-formatted reporting
Clearance status, certification expirations, surveillance findings, restriction notifications, and renewal calendars delivered to your safety team in the format they need - not clinical reports designed for patient portals.
Integration with the full occupational health program
Physical exams connect directly to surveillance, injury management, and Corporate Medical Direction - meaning every clearance is part of a continuous workforce health record, not an isolated clinical event.
Frequently Asked Questions - Additional Employer Questions
Components vary by examination type and role requirements. A standard pre-employment physical includes medical history, vital signs, cardiovascular and pulmonary screening, musculoskeletal evaluation against documented job demands, vision and audiometric screening, drug testing through Medical Review Officer protocols, and respirator medical clearance where required. DOT physicals include the FMCSA-mandated examination components under 49 CFR 391. Surveillance physicals include the substance-specific components mandated by the applicable OSHA standard. Pre-placement physicals add Functional Capacity Evaluations and lift testing calibrated to actual job demands. Specific component lists per examination type are documented in your protocol package and calibrated to your workforce composition.
Yes. For employers with high-volume hiring cycles, large mobilizations, surveillance cohorts requiring scheduled examination, or remote operations where clinic transport is operationally impractical, Occucare deploys onsite examination teams directly to your facility or job site. Onsite delivery includes the same physician oversight, documentation standards, and protocol calibration as our clinic-based examinations - with the operational advantage of eliminating worker travel time and reducing examination-day downtime.
Occucare delivers multi-site physical exams through three channels: our Houston clinic for local workforces, onsite deployment for large mobilizations and remote operations, and our 3,000-clinic vetted network for multi-state operations. All clinical services follow the same physician-designed protocols regardless of location. Results are reported through a centralized employer documentation system - so your safety team has one workforce physical examination record, not separate records from separate vendors at separate sites.
Standard onboarding from signed agreement to live clinical access is two to three weeks. Job-demand analysis and protocol build run in parallel with administrative setup. For employers with an immediate need - a new contract start, an OSHA citation response, a workers' compensation carrier deadline, or a general contractor pre-qualification timeline - we compress that schedule and prioritize the protocol components that gate your operational requirements.
Yes. Every Medical Director on the Occucare team is board-certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Occupational Medicine, and our examination protocols are aligned to every applicable OSHA surveillance standard - silica (29 CFR 1926.1153), asbestos (1926.1101), lead (1926.62), noise (1910.95), hexavalent chromium (1910.1026), respiratory protection (1910.134), and other regulated substances. Surveillance findings are interpreted against substance-specific medical removal criteria, and documentation is structured to survive OSHA inspection without reactive reconstruction.
Most occupational health clinics provide medical care; Occucare provides medical leadership across your entire workforce health program. For physical exams specifically, that means a board-certified physician owning the protocol design, the clearance determinations, the surveillance interpretations, and the program-wide documentation standard - not just signing off on the exam in front of them. The 93% onsite injury management rate across our broader occupational health program is a direct output of that structural difference, and the same governance framework runs every physical exam in your program.
Explore Occucare's Full Workforce Health Program
Physical exams are the diagnostic foundation of Occucare’s integrated workforce health program. Every service below connects directly to the physical exam infrastructure – providing the physician governance, the surveillance program, the injury management, or the workforce-level functions that depend on continuous physical examination documentation.
Occupational Health Services
The parent program governing physical exams, surveillance, injury triage, return-to-work, and the full workforce health infrastructure.
DOT Physicals
FMCSA-certified Medical Examiner's Certificates with same-day issuance and National Registry upload for CDL workforces.
Pre-Employment Services
Drug screening, physicals, vaccinations, and respirator clearance for new hires, configured per role and per industry.
Pre-Placement Testing
Functional Capacity Evaluations and job-match testing for industrial and construction roles.
Fit-for-Duty Exams
Independent medical evaluations for return-to-work, post-incident, and safety-sensitive clearance.
Workplace Compliance Testing
Drug screening, respirator fit testing, PFTs, audiometric testing, and OSHA surveillance under the same physician governance.
Corporate Medical Direction
The physician governance framework overseeing your entire physical exam, surveillance, and injury management program.
Occupational Health Clinic Houston
Walk-in and scheduled employer physicals, workplace injury care, and onsite occupational health delivery at our Houston facility.
Stop Treating Employer Physical Exams as a Generic Clinical Visit
Your physical exam program is the foundation of your occupational health infrastructure – or it is a sequence of one-time clinical visits your HR team books at the lowest-cost retail clinic and reconciles every time an OSHA inspector, FMCSA auditor, or general contractor’s pre-qualification team requests documentation. Occucare International delivers your entire physical exam program – pre-employment, pre-placement, DOT, fit-for-duty, surveillance, return-to-work, exit, and specialty examinations -h under one physician-governed program, with centralized documentation, proactive renewal management, and employer-formatted reporting built in from day one.