[MCOH-EH] Employees with body odor

[Senior, Cathy (Employee Health)]

We did have a similar situation in our Health Information Mgmt dept where there were many complaints. Employee Health always speaks to the employee in private to inquire about medical and personal situations. This employee had both. We did follow her closely to ensure that she did act on the physical issues however odor still persisted. She had numerous medical conditions and non of the odor was due to hygiene.  She lived in a basement apartment and her clothes at times would smell very musty so once that was taken care of by her landlord then we worked on accommodation related to her medical conditions. Since she shared an office with two other workers we purchased ionic air filters for use in that office which  worked for a while. We could not use any type of air fresheners as the employee was allergic to most things. In the end we finally found her an office of her own which ended the two years of trying different accommodations. I never disclosed any of her medical conditions just informed HR that we needed to accommodate. Hope this helps

Cathy Senior RN BSN CDE
Employee Health Director
Penn Highlands DuBois
100 Hospital Avenue
P.O. Box 447
DuBois Pa 15801
Phone 814-375-3392
Fax 814-372-2610
cesenior at phhealthcare.org
www.phhealthcare.org

From: MCOH-EH [mailto:mcoh-eh-bounces+cesenior=drmc.org at mylist.net] On Behalf Of Enass Awad
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 10:31 AM
To: MCOH/EH
Subject: [MCOH-EH] Employees with body odor

Dear colleagues:
  I was wondering if any of you have any experience or a procedure that help in dealing with an employee of bad body odor.
  Employees in a department have reported complaints against one of their colleagues who recently joined  , stating that he has bad body odor in general and halitosis. The manager approached his in a discrete way to address the issue and he informed the manager that he has a "medical condition" which causes the bad odor.
  Some coworkers believe it is a hygiene issue and HR is trying to validate the medical concerns as it can have them handle the situation differently.
  Please share any thoughts or previous experiences particularly as it relates to protecting this employee's privacy and how to ensure the correspondence with HR should be.
  We already let them know, that we will need to get the employee's consent if we were to disclose the nature of any medical condition and otherwise, we will only be able to say whether or not we have identified a "medical condition" that can cause such symptoms in which case, we can request special accommodations for him.

Thanks and look forward to your feedback,

Enass

--
Enass Awad A/Rahman,MD,MPH
Department of Occupational Medicine
Mercy Medical Group
3000 Q Street
Sacramento,CA,95816
Tel: 916-733-3390


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