Hello Everyone:
Our Infection Prevention manager recently sent me a posting from an Infection Prevention forum from a facility that was identified as being in “low risk TB setting” in
which annual testing was not being done. The facility reported that by policy they were requiring employees to report foreign travel to Employee Health/Infection Prevention, and if the travel was to a country with endemic TB they were screening the employees
for TB 8-10 weeks after they returned. It is not clear from the posting what exactly was being done for screening (questionnaire, TST, etc.).
This is not something that I had heard of as a practice before and not something that we are presently doing. I am sending this out to the listserv to see if this is
a common practice, and if so to gather data on what sort of screening is being done.
Just off the cuff, this would seem to be a very difficult policy to enforce.
Thank you for your input.
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