[MCOH-EH] Question on travel restrictions

[Tara Dockery]

We did quarantine an employee or two who took families to spring break locations when everyone was supposed to be staying at home. One was due to family having symptoms when they returned and the employee eventually got the symptoms but did not want to be tested. the other we quarantined because they had posted pictures on their Facebook for being in Florida and people who knew her in the community and staff beegan to complain to administration and HR that they would not feel safe working beside them, or the public knew she would be who cared for them or their family when they came in so they requested something be done to assure their safety. 

after that we had to put the same policy out to others, so a new hire we had come in had to quarantine before she is allowed to start because they crossed state lines to travel to get here, and  a surgeon was home visiting family 3 states away when all surgeries were cancelled, and now when he travels back to the area he will need to quarantine before he is allowed to return to work.

I haven't seen any new things come in, so maybe people had stopped thinking it was ok to travel, now with things opening up I wonder if it will. 

Most of WA has already had a surge of cases and it has slowed down, but for us we have just begun to get our positive cases about 3 weeks ago, and now are having our cases doubled by a group of workers working in a cannery in Oregon but their primary residence is in my county, so I don't think we will plan to open alot of things soon, however our community is  on the coast, so when people from other areas will want to travel they all think they will want to come to the beach, so we are hoping for people not to travel to come in and bring more of the virus here, or to come here and find a way to contract the virus here.

Tara Dockery
________________________________________
From: MCOH-EH [mcoh-eh-bounces at mylist.net] on behalf of Charles Hackett [dickenshackett at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 7, 2020 11:41 AM
To: MCOH-EH
Subject: Re: [MCOH-EH] Question on travel restrictions

CAUTION: This email originated from outside your organization. Exercise caution when opening attachments or clicking links, especially from unknown senders.

We stopped any travel screening a number of weeks ago.
For about 6 weeks all are employees have had to wear a mask while working.
We found that initially it was helpful to ask about travel but as time went by we just looked at if an employee was symptomatic or not.
Our DOH had told RI citizens to self quarantine etc.
Those restrictions do not apply to HCW
Thanks
Charlie
Lifespan

On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 10:42 AM Shea, Joann via MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh at mylist.net<mailto:mcoh-eh at mylist.net>> wrote:
Good morning all…e

Do any of you require self-quarantine for 14 days after domestic travel?   Our healthcare organization currently requires  a 14 day quarantine for any international travel and any domestic travel to New York, Louisiana, New Jersey, and other areas that are currently “hot zones” such as Miami area in Florida.     We review travel on a case by case basis via our COVID-19 hotline, and inquire about where they are visiting,   how many people they will be around, what they will be doing, etc.

With summer coming and employees wanting to plan vacations, we were wondering what others were doing at other healthcare organizations in reference to travel restrictions.

Also…how many of you are screening employees before they enter your facility?   We are doing a symptom screen, have you traveled in the past 14 days and a temp check.  We are moving to a mobile app that the team member can sign into before work, answer the questions and then just shows the screener the “green light” and then only needs a temp check.

Thank you!

JoAnn Shea, APRN, MS, COHN-S
Director, Team Member Health and Wellness
Tampa General Hospital
Office: 813-844-7692
Cell:      813-789-3441
jshea at tgh.org<mailto:jshea at tgh.org>
[imageTGH]<https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/fl/tampa-general-hospital-6391060>

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