Once an employee is exposed and labs are drawn, at what frequency does the employee return for follow up labs? There isn’t a lot of guidance on f/u testing for medical surveillance.

 

 

 

CBC, UA, CMP, reproductive health questionnaire

 

 

 

What components are you monitoring?

Thank you,

Karen Morelli RN, BSN, Clinical Manager

WorkHealth LLC

Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems

 

 

 

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We have a program in our hospitals.  The program is voluntary at this time, so there is no compliance tracking.  We extend invitations to all Pharmacy staff and to nurses who routinely administer hazardous drugs each year and upon hire.  We are considering their first visit a baseline (regardless of if they have worked for us for many years, we had to start somewhere).  For those with abnormal results, our Occ Health Physicians handle those case by case, so I suppose they may do follow up testing or in some cases refer them to their own providers.  As for the USP800, we are looking into that and will update our policies but have not done so yet. 

Hope that helps!

 

 

 

I, too, would love to see if anyone has a hazardous drug surveillance program in place as our system is looking at this as well.

 

Karen Morelli RN, BSN

Clinical Manager

WorkHealth LLC

Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems

 

 

 

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Hi all,

 

I sincerely appreciate the input and perspectives from this group. I have some follow up questions that I’m curious how others are handling:

1. For current employees, how are you getting folks into compliance with this regulation? Are you asking them to complete the questionnaire and lab work (CBC, metabolic panel, UA) now and considering this a baseline?
2. What are you doing with abnormal lab results for these current employees? Referring to their own physician? Doing follow up and more extensive testing through Occupational Medicine to determine other underlying health conditions and then referring to PCPs?

I’ve really appreciated the shared policies and forms from everyone! Thanks for being such a great community!

 

 

 

 

I’m fairly new to the organization so still learning how it is determined who’s in the program. I’m assuming that a list is giving to occur health by the director of oncology nursing. I can respond back once I get further clarification.

 

 

 

How do you determine who to place in surveillance and how many employees are you running through the surveillance labs?

Terri

 

Kindest regards,

 

Terri

 

Terri L. Thrasher RN MSN

Sr. Director HR

Employee Health, Occupational Safety, Environmental Health, Employee Relations, Leave Management  HR Compliance/Policy, Workers Compensation, 803-SAFE, Injury Management, Non CCHMC Badging, Early Education and Childcare Center

3333 Burnet Ave

Cincinnati Ohio 45229  MLC 9006

513-636-6240

 

 

 

 

Cathy,

 

At Memorial Hermann we have a surveillance program that I am in the process of updating due to the USP 800 requirements. We have a policy in place in our hospitals on how the drugs are handled etc and it is fairly comprehensive. The medical surveillance I believe as involved checking a CBC, UA and completing an annual questionnaire. I am developing a medical surveillance guideline that will addl laboratory tests such as LFT’s, BUN/Cr to the CBC w/diff and UA. Will also add a focused exam component for post exposures.

 

That may be overkill but I want to make sure we have a comprehensive program. Feel free to contact me for further questions.

 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone have a medical surveillance plan for employees who handle hazardous drugs. We are seeing more administration of these hazardous drugs between starting the intravesical therapy and the biologics that are administered. We follow the ONS guidelines for safe handling of hazardous drugs as outlined in our policy. We already have the appropriate work practice in place including proper use of PPE and education for the staff that handle these drugs. There has been a concern voiced by one of our educators that institutions such as NIOSH have recommendations for medical surveillance to make it a comprehensive prevention program that we do not have in place.  Some of the drugs we administer is  Carboplatin, VP-16, Taxol, Cisplatin, Cytoxan, Erbitux, 5-FU, Abraxane, Gemzar, Herceptin, Parieto and Rituxan to name a few. We also give biologics to out-patients in our short stay unit. Any help would be much appreciated.  Thanks

 

 

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@phhealthcare.org

www.phhealthcare.org

 

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