We too have nurses on call 24/7 for Fitness for Duty/dgt/BAT testing for Inhouse employees and for dgt/BAT for external clients.

For after-hours bloodborne exposures, staff are instructed to page the Nursing Supervisor who consent( if indicated) and test the “source” pt. They have confidential numbers they use. The TAT time for labs is ~ 2 hrs, so the employee remains working and gets notified of the results. (We use a 4th generation HIV). Staff are then instructed to f/u with us next business day for counseling, baseline labs, discussion of any need for f/u, etc.  It works pretty well and keeps the employee out of the ED (where they would sit for hours…) and working.

 

 

Lisa Hegel, MS, APRN, COHN-S

Nurse Supervisor

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Lebanon, NH  03756

603-653-3850

Fax: 603-650-0928

 



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