Page 9 - Best Practice in Travel Risk Management 2019 - Forum Findings

Best practice in travel risk management 2019
HEALTH:
A NEW FOCUS ON PREVENTION
Getting hurt or falling ill on a business trip
are the most common ways for employees to become involved with their organisation’s travel risk management (TRM) program.
However, as incidents like a fall in a shower or a mental health issue are more likely than contact with Ebola or the Zika virus today’s programs need to pay more attention to chronic health issues and pre-travel screening.
Once repatriating a 70-year old professor who had a cardiac issue in Afghanistan would have been a success but today questions should be asked about if it was appropriate for him to travel in the first place.
“Business travel is bad for you on a general level,” says Nic Hillier, a doctor and beTravelwise’s Health Adviser.
A World Bank study of more than 10,000 employees shows the incidence of basic risk lifestyle issues such as smoking, obesity, insomnia and depression are two to three times higher among business travellers than in the general population.
“The overwhelming majority of the four million cases that come through our centres every
year are medical cases,” says Anthony Renshaw, medical director of International SOS. “And we can see many were potentially preventable.”
Business travellers are at risk of every form of major illness, not just infectious diseases.
There are a high number of cardiovascular cases. Employees who travel more than four times a year are three times more likely to have mental health issues.
The challenges for the employer include identifying those people who are more at risk and whether it is possible to screen everyone who travels.
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