Let me find out. I do know that, for all of the university-affiliated hospitals in the Texas Medical Center (which is all of them), our university or Baylor College of Medicine provide these services (there are some exceptions, such as our pediatric hospital, where the hospital offers this service to Baylor medical staff as well). But I’ll find out what the deal is for hospitals that are not university-affiliated.

George L. Delclos, MD, MPH, PhD

Professor and Marcus M. Key, M.D. – Shell Occupational and Environmental Health Endowed Chair

Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences

Distinguished Teaching Professor, The University of Texas System

Associate Director, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program

The University of Texas School of Public Health

P.O. Box 20186

Houston, Texas 77225-0186

Phone:   713 500 9459

FAX:        713 500 9442

Email:     George.Delclos@uth.tmc.edu

From: Hodgson, Michael - OSHA <Hodgson.Michael@dol.gov>
Sent: Friday, August 14, 2020 3:13 PM
To: Delclos, George <George.Delclos@uth.tmc.edu>; MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Subject: RE: private sector practices

**** EXTERNAL EMAIL ****

Thanks!

But how do they interact with private physician groups?  If there’s a group of ED physicians, do the hospitals include them in their infection control plan?  Train / issue N95s?  Or are they viewed as “independent contractors” for whom the hospital has no responsibility?  And down there, do such groups have safetymanagers  / designated respirator program managers who help the MDs stay safe?

From: Delclos, George <George.Delclos@uth.tmc.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 14, 2020 4:10 PM
To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Cc: Hodgson, Michael - OSHA <Hodgson.Michael@dol.gov>
Subject: RE: private sector practices

Hi, Mike.

The large hospitals we work with here in the Texas Medical Center (Houston) all have in-house environmental health and safety personnel (if not a full-fledged department) that takes care of all of this. And many of these hospitals are part of health systems that are city or statewide, so they should have access the same type of services. I’m less sure about smaller regional or stand-alone hospitals.

Best,

George.

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Hodgson, Michael - OSHA via MCOH-EH
Sent: Friday, August 14, 2020 1:58 PM
To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Cc: Hodgson, Michael - OSHA <Hodgson.Michael@dol.gov>
Subject: [MCOH-EH] private sector practices

**** EXTERNAL EMAIL ****

Hi, all

We’ve run into an interesting set of circumstances that differs from my experience in academic medical centers and the VA, where there was a very structured approach to this.  And it may be that private sector healthcare, with specialty physician groups and  hospitals, with  their mix of contractual relationships (“Russian nesting dolls” comes to mind, is just very very different.  There have been some problems with physician groups that have agreements / contracts with hospitals where there doesn’t appear to be a structured approach to hazard identification and risk management, i.e., no one trains them, does fit-testing, or provides them with N95s when appropriate.  Do your hospitals do something like that?  Do your medical staff by laws address this?  The hospital infection control program? 

Just curiosity whether this is a common problem out there, what you’ve tried,  and whether you’ve found solutions…

Michael Hodgson