Our process:
Wearing PPE protects the employee from
exposures. We do not exempt employees unless there is a reason they can't
be fit tested.
We only exempt for a medical or religious
reason from fit testing and do not use any type of PAPRs at our hospital
except disaster and then it is our Decon team only.
We do not use PAPRs at our hospital
at all for any other reasons.
A medical reason would be due to the
inability to fit test someone such as facial deformity, severe folliculitis
resulting in an employees inability to shave.
When we have an employee that we are
unsuccessful in fitting, the employee is sent to an occupational med clinic
for eval which includes claustrophobia.
For the folliculitis, we will accept
a letter from a physician. The employee is then exempted via Employee Relations
of HR.
Out of 6000 employees and contractors
(across three campus locations), we have only about 7 that are exempted.
Thanks,
Kathy Dayvault, RN, BSN, MPH
Manager, Occupational Health and
Safety
WorksWell Onsite
Dekalb Medical 2701 North
Decatur Road
Decatur, GA 30033
ph: 404.501.4972 Fax:404-501-2045
kathy.dayvault@dekalbmedical.org
From:
"Jordana L. Mcdonald"
<Jordana.Mcdonald@salemhealth.org>
To:
"mcoh-eh@mylist.net"
<mcoh-eh@mylist.net>,
Date:
03/06/2018 12:17 PM
Subject:
[MCOH-EH] Revisiting
Policies regarding Immune-Suppressed Employees and Duty Exemptions
Sent by:
"MCOH-EH"
<mcoh-eh-bounces+kathy.dayvault=dekalbmedical.org@mylist.net>
Hello Everyone:
This was a topic a couple of weeks
ago and did not get much response. I wish to revisit it because I
now have an employee with RA on Xeljanz requesting that she be exempted
from N95 mask fit testing because she does not believe that she should
be caring for patients with TB. My facility does not appear to have
any policies around this and in checking it with Infection Prevention they
are concerned that creating such exemptions would create further issues
with staffing isolation rooms. Additionally, we have no idea how
many other employees are on similar medications or chemotherapy, though
with the aging workforce, I would guess we would expect the incidence of
such cases to increase over time. Should they be exempted only from
TB, should they be exempted from all isolation cases? Does this become
another issue like claustrophobia which requires that the various units
determine if ability to care for isolation patients is a core job function
(so far we are working on the ability to wear an N95 or CAPR related to
the claustrophobia).
I would appreciate any input.
Thank you all for this lively group.
Jordana
Jordana McDonald FNP-c
Salem Health Employee Health/Occupational
Medicine
Salem Health Medical Group
SALEM HEALTH
Hospitals & Clinics
1002 Bellevue Street SE
Salem, OR 97301
Jordana.mcdonald@salemhealth.org
503-814-7250
Fax: 503-814-7253
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