Company doctor in the company: duties, appointment and interaction with compliance

Section 2 of the Occupational Safety Act (ASiG) of December 12, 1973 requires every employer to appoint a company doctor in writing as soon as employees are working within the meaning of the law. The appointment is independent of the number of employees and generally applies from the first employee, with a reduced form of care for small businesses with up to ten employees. The obligation is specified in DGUV Regulation 2, which defines an operating time in hours per employee per year for each operating mode in Appendix 2, graded according to the risk potential. At the same time, the Occupational Health Preventive Care Ordinance (ArbMedVV) obliges the employer to arrange, offer and enable occupational health check-ups, at different levels of liability depending on the type of activity.

This article offers a complete overview of the duties of the company doctor, the calculation of operating times according to DGUV regulation 2, the collaboration with the occupational safety specialist, the typical cost framework for internal and external company doctors and the integration into a compliance platform confidential area. The focus is on operational implementation in German medium-sized businesses, not on abstract legal representations. Anyone who reads the article can initiate a clearly documented order for a company doctor on the next working day, check the annual deployment planning against DGUV regulation 2 and compare the preventive care routines against the ArbMedVV systems.

Three sets of rules shape the work of the company doctor in Germany and must be observed by the employer at the same time. The Occupational Safety Act (ASiG) is the basic law governing the appointment of company doctors. Section 1 ASiG obliges employers to appoint company doctors and occupational safety specialists to support and provide advice on occupational health and safety in the company. § 2 ASiG requires a written order and a written definition of tasks with a determination of the deployment time. § 3 ASiG lists the specific tasks of the company doctor, including advising the employer, occupational medical examinations, inspecting the company, instructing employees and participation in the occupational health and safety committee.

The Occupational Health Prevention Ordinance (ArbMedVV) specifies when the employer must arrange, offer or enable preventive examinations. The regulation distinguishes between compulsory preventive care (mandatory, in the case of particular risks, a prerequisite for starting work), offered preventive care (offered at the employee's request and verifiably documented) and desired preventive care (made possible at the employee's initiative). Appendix 1 ArbMedVV lists the activities that trigger compulsory precautions, from activities with hazardous substances to biological agents to computer screen work with particular stress.

DGUV regulation 2 is the professional association regulation that specifies the working hours and is the market standard for contract negotiations with the company doctor. Appendix 2 lists a basic care time in hours per employee per year for each operating type, which ranges between 0.3 hours (office, administrative work) and 2.5 hours (heavy industrial production with high risk). There is also event-related support for special situations such as risk assessments, incidents or action planning. Whoever documents the order as an employer keeps the appointment certificate, task assignment and deployment schedule together in one file. The appointment certificate, signed, filed, verifiable.

§ 3 ASiG defines the tasks of the company doctor in six areas that intertwine in daily practice and fill the annual working time. Anyone who does not reflect the distribution of tasks in the contract will have to explain the matter to management and the professional association in the annual activity report. Firstly: Advice to the employer and the people otherwise responsible for occupational safety and accident prevention, in particular on the planning, execution and maintenance of operational facilities and the procurement of work equipment. This strategic advice typically covers 20 to 30 percent of the operational time and is aimed at management, factory management and HR.

Secondly: occupational medical examinations, the evaluation of the examination results and advice to the people examined. This activity is the most visible component and is often equated with the overall work of the company doctor, although it only makes up a part and is overrepresented compared to the other tasks in many companies. Thirdly: regular inspections of the workplace and notification of any deficiencies identified to the employer and the occupational safety specialist. According to DGUV regulation 2, these inspections are linked to defined intervals and must be documented.

Fourth: Advice on the selection and testing of personal protective equipment, from respiratory protection to hearing protection. Fifth: Advice on work-physiological, work-psychological and ergonomic issues, especially in the design of workplaces, work processes and break regulations. Sixth: support in planning the deployment of employees, taking health aspects into account, such as shift planning or reintegration after illness. There are also further tasks from the ArbMedVV (arranging compulsory preventive care) and from the Maternity Protection Act (risk assessment for pregnant and breastfeeding employees and their advice). The tasks are documented in the annual activity report, which is presented to the employer, stored in the compliance workspace and presented to the occupational health and safety committee. The auditor calls, the evidence is ready.

The working time of the company doctor is calculated according to DGUV regulation 2 in two components, which must be shown separately in the contract and in the annual activity report: basic care and company-specific care. The basic care in hours per employee per year depends on the operating type (tool code of the classification of economic sectors) and is tabulated in Appendix 2 of DGUV Regulation 2. Examples: Office and administrative activities (WZ 70) 0.3 hours per employee per year, retail trade (WZ 47) 0.5 hours, metal processing (WZ 25) 1.1 hours, construction industry (WZ 41-43) 1.2 to 2.5 hours depending on the subcategory, chemical industry (WZ 20) 2.5 hours.

The basic care time is allocated to the company doctor and specialist divided for occupational safety, typically in a ratio of 50:50 or, depending on the industry, 40:60, with documented justification for the division. In addition, there is company-specific support, which is ordered on a case-by-case basis for particular risks, action planning, risk assessments in accordance with Section 5 of the ArbSchG or the introduction of new work procedures. This component cannot be calculated across the board, but is derived from the company's risk profile and re-determined annually.

A concrete calculation example: a mechanical engineering company with 200 employees and WZ 28 (mechanical engineering, 0.9 hours of basic care). The annual basic care is 200 × 0.9 = 180 hours, of which typically 90 hours are for the company doctor and 90 hours for the occupational safety specialist. In addition, there is an estimated 40 to 80 hours of company-specific support per year, depending on the risk profile, status of measures and special projects such as putting new machines into operation. The total deployment of company doctors is 130 to 170 hours per year, or around three to four weeks of full-time equivalent. This number is crucial for the choice between internal and external company doctor and for the contract structure, which must combine hourly rate and minimum purchase.

The ASiG obligation is fulfilled identically by internal or external company doctors. Section 19 ASiG explicitly allows inter-company service, i.e. the appointment of an external doctor or an occupational health service that looks after several companies in parallel. The choice follows three criteria: utilization in hours per year, industry complexity and regional availability of qualified occupational health professionals. In Germany, there are around 12,000 doctors with a specialist qualification in occupational medicine or an additional qualification in occupational medicine, which leads to noticeable bottlenecks in some regions, especially in rural areas and structurally weak areas.

For companies with fewer than 500 employees, the external company doctor is typically the economical choice. The annual working hours are usually well below an FTE equivalent (1,700 hours per year), so internal employment is neither full nor economical. Standard market hourly rates for external company doctors in Germany in 2026 will be between EUR 110 and EUR 180 per hour, plus travel compensation and examination fees according to GOÄ rates. Occupational health services with their own practice rooms can be offered more cheaply than individual company doctors.

For companies with more than 800 employees at one location, especially in industries with a long basic care time such as chemistry or heavy metal processing, the internal solution becomes more attractive. The full cost of an internal company doctor is between EUR 130,000 and EUR 180,000 per year including social security contributions, practice equipment, further training and replacement arrangements. A hybrid variant combines an internal company doctor with a fixed number of hours and an external substitute doctor for vacation and illness periods as well as for peak loads. This variant has proven successful for companies with between 500 and 800 employees because it combines continuity and flexibility. Others run compliance like a filing cabinet. We run it like software., including the company doctor's operating time documentation in the workspace with an audit-proof hourly account.

According to Section 1 ASiG, the company doctor and occupational safety specialist form a tandem with clearly separated responsibilities and close interfaces, which is underestimated in many companies. The company doctor is responsible for the medical-preventive perspective (compulsory precautions, suitability assessment, ergonomic advice), the occupational safety specialist is responsible for the technical-organisational perspective (machine safety, personal protective equipment, safe work processes). Both are appointed, both report directly to the management, and both take part in inspections and meetings of the Occupational Safety and Health Committee (ASA).

The Occupational Safety and Health Committee according to Section 11 ASiG is the central forum for cooperation and at the same time the mandatory documentation body for the management. It must be formed in companies with more than 20 regular employees and meets at least quarterly. Participants are the employer or a representative, two works council members appointed by the works council, the company doctor, the occupational safety specialist and the safety representatives. In the ASA, the results of the inspections, the risk assessments, the incidents, the accidents and the planned measures are discussed and recorded in writing.

In practice, four common routines have proven effective, which make the tandem of the company doctor and SiFa effective. First: joint company inspections, typically four times a year for the most important areas, with a joint inspection protocol. Secondly: joint risk assessments in accordance with Section 5 ArbSchG, in which the company doctor contributes the health assessment and SiFa takes over the derivation of technical measures. Third: joint training, for example for first aid, fire protection assistants and first responders. Fourth: joint evaluation of work accidents and near misses with the derivation of improvement measures. In the CIVAC workspace, both roles run in a tenant with separate authorizations, so that the company doctor and SiFa access the same incident database and the same inspection calendar without medical data flowing to SiFa. Audit-proof, documented, ASiG-proof.

The Occupational Health Prevention Ordinance (ArbMedVV) distinguishes between three forms of prevention, which impose different obligations on the employer and trigger different documentation obligations. Compulsory precautions according to Annex Part 1 ArbMedVV must be taken when certain activities are carried out, such as activities with carcinogenic hazardous substances, with biological agents in risk groups 3 and 4, with noise above 85 dB (A) or when carrying out activities under compressed air. Compulsory precautions are a prerequisite for starting work. If it is not carried out, the employee is not allowed to carry out the activity. The deadline for initial precautionary measures is usually three months before the start of the activity.

Provisional precautionary measures in accordance with Annex Part 2 ArbMedVV must be offered if certain activities are carried out, such as computer work with particular stress, noise between 80 and 85 dB (A) or activities with hazardous substances below the mandatory precautionary limit. The employee decides whether to accept the offer. Documentation of the offer and the acceptance or rejection is mandatory and belongs in the personnel file as well as in the compliance workspace with the date and form of the offer.

Any employee who fears work-related health damage can be requested to have preventive care in accordance with Section 11 of the ArbSchG. The employer must make provision possible provided there is no apparent hopelessness and the employee justifies the reason in writing or verbally. In practice, desired precautions are rarely required, but should be well documented in the event of escalations with staff representatives or supervisory authorities. The company doctor creates a preventative care file for each type of preventive care in accordance with Section 3 ArbMedVV, which documents the obligations regarding the reason, date and result (without diagnosis) and is kept for a long time depending on the activity. The medical confidentiality obligation according to Section 8 ArbMedVV remains unaffected, which strictly limits the flow of data to the employer. The deadline begins when the employee becomes aware of the mandatory preventive care requirement, not just when the preventive care is offered or accepted by the employee.

The medical confidentiality obligation according to § 203 StGB and § 8 ArbMedVV fundamentally distinguishes the company doctor from other company functions such as the occupational safety specialist or the data protection officer. The employer does not receive the medical diagnosis from the company doctor, but only the job-related suitability assessment. This can be: there are health concerns, there are no health concerns, or health concerns exist under certain conditions such as reduced shift duration or foregoing certain activities. Diagnoses, previous illnesses or treatment courses are taboo and may not be disclosed even upon request.

This special status has several practical consequences for the platform and documentation architecture. Firstly: the company doctor's medical records are kept separately from the personnel file, both physically and in digital systems. Only the company doctor and medical assistants with their own duty of confidentiality have access. Secondly: the processing of personal health data must be particularly protected as a special category according to Art. 9 GDPR, with increased technical and organisational measures such as encryption and access logging. Thirdly: the retention period for preventive documents extends, depending on the type of preventive care and hazardous substance, up to 40 years after the end of the activity, especially for carcinogenic substances according to TRGS 410 and for ionizing radiation.

In the CIVAC workspace, the company medical files are kept in a separate, confidential client area to which only the company doctor and, if necessary, an authorised substitute doctor have access. The employer sees the anonymized activity report, the operational time billing and the aggregated prevention statistics (number of examinations per type, without personal reference). EU data residency is particularly relevant for health data because the transfer to third countries according to Art. 49 GDPR is only permitted in very exceptional cases and poses particular risks for those affected. This design allows a consolidated compliance view from management without compromising medical confidentiality or creating data breaches.

The costs for an external company doctor consist of four components that should be clearly stated in the contract and must be treated separately in the annual budget. First: basic care allowance, calculated based on the DGUV regulation of 2 hours multiplied by the hourly rate. With 200 employees in a mechanical engineering company (0.9 hours of basic care, 50 percent of which are a company doctor) and an hourly rate of EUR 140, the annual basic care fee is around EUR 12,600 net, excluding preventive services.

Secondly: company-specific care, billed according to actual effort and hourly rate. For an average medium-sized company, the annual effort is 40 to 100 hours, i.e. EUR 5,600 to 14,000. The range depends on the risk profile and the number of special projects such as machine purchases or moves. Third: Individual services such as preventive examinations, billed according to GOÄ rates or a flat rate agreement, typically between EUR 35 and 95 per examination depending on the type and duration. With 80 examinations per year, that amounts to EUR 2,800 to EUR 7,600.

Fourth: travel compensation and on-call allowances, which are handled differently depending on the region and are often overlooked in contract negotiations. Overall, the annual cost structure for a 200-employee company is typically EUR 22,000 to EUR 38,000 net. The contract should explicitly regulate five points: hourly rate and indexation with an annual adjustment clause, minimum purchase of hours per year, response times for health care inquiries and emergencies, replacement arrangements in the event of vacation or illness of the company doctor and storage and handover of the health care file after the end of the contract. If you don't find these five points in the contract, you have a gap that will become visible in the event of an incident or when you change provider. Audit-proof, documented, ASiG-proof. A standardised template from the CIVAC template pool saves negotiation from scratch and ensures compatibility with the other agent contracts.

The company doctor is not alone in a company's representative landscape and his work only gains its full value in interaction with the other roles. In addition to him, occupational safety specialists, fire protection officers, data protection officers and, depending on the industry, other roles such as hazardous substances officers, hygiene officers or radiation protection officers typically work. These roles share incidents, inspections, training records and action plans. Anyone who manages these cross-connections via isolated files (practice software, Excel, Sharepoint, local hard drives) builds up redundancies and inconsistencies that become visible in the first external audit by the professional association or supervisory authority.

CIVAC is a compliance platform and officer-as-a-service, built for exactly this cross-linking across all officer roles. Licence the workspace for your internal representatives or have our representatives order it. Both models use the same tenant, the same 490 audit templates and the same reporting logic to management. The company doctor keeps his confidentiality-protected health insurance file in a separate area that neither management nor HR has access to, and submits anonymized activity reports to management, which are stored in the workspace and presented to the occupational safety committee. Incidents that affect both occupational safety and data protection (e.g. an electrical accident involving people or a false alarm involving evacuation and media reporting) are fed from an incident data record into both reporting paths.

If management wants to minimise the effort involved in appointing a company doctor and at the same time increase compliance quality, take the next step in concrete terms. A message to info@civac.de or the contact form on civac.de, stating the industry, locations, number of employees and existing order, starts the process without obligation. A binding offer with a draft appointment certificate, operating time calculation according to DGUV regulation 2, contract template and cost framework will be available within two working days. Turn reading into an assignment.