Good Afternoon All,

This is a very large task for our organization. Therefore, we break down fit testing into “New Hire” and “Ongoing”.

In order to annually qualify our workers, we utilize a vendor called VestMed (https://www.respiratorclearance.com/) who does all of our MEQ’s electronically before the employee shows up for their fit test, regardless if this is New Hire or Ongoing. The electronic MEQ clears a majority of our team members automatically. If it cannot, VestMed has a physician on staff that speaks with the employee and potentially clears them over the phone. If they cannot be cleared over the phone and a physical evaluation is required, they are referred to an Occupational Medicine provider as needed.

Our Employee Health team fit tests all New Hires before they begin work if they are in an at risk job to airborne contaminants. We also utilize a vendor called Best Fit Test who performs fit tests at least annually (some more than once) for our facilities. Our local Employee Health team acts as a backup in case an employee can not make one of the fit test clinics that we host.

Finally, our IT team has created a dashboard to support our tracking of fit tests. This provides a real time view of each of our facilities status and fit testing needs which allows us to allocate or shift additional resources as needed.

I hope that this helps!

Matt Thompson, CSP

Executive Director of Occupational Safety and Health

Wellstar Health System - Legal Services

793 Sawyer Road

Marietta, GA 30062

770-289-9077

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Jennifer Carr
Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2022 7:44 AM
To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Subject: Re: [MCOH-EH] EXTERNAL: Re: Fit Testing

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Nikki,

Thank you for sharing. Who reviews the OSHA Medical questionnaire and is there any physical medical evaluation that takes place?
Thank you,

Jennifer

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Nikki Ripplinger
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2022 12:38 PM
To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Subject: Re: [MCOH-EH] EXTERNAL: Re: Fit Testing

We are a critical access rural hospital. I am the Infection Prevetionist and Employee Health Nurse. I complete new employee fit testing at new employee orientation. We complete the entire staff fit testing during International Infection Prevention Week every October. I have two nurses trained to help me during that week. I have to keep the records in their employee health files.

Thank you,

Nikki Ripplinger RN IP CIC

Infection Control/Employee Health RN

120 East Howard Avenue, Driggs, Idaho

Phone: (208) 354-6317 Ext. 138

Fax: (208) 354-6318

tvhcare.org

From: MCOH-EH [mailto:mcoh-eh-bounces@mylist.net] On Behalf Of Schweitzer, Kit
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2022 9:56 AM
To: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [MCOH-EH] Fit Testing

WARNING: This email originated outside of TVHC's email system.
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We have an internal respiratory team that works out of Employee Health. It includes a program manager, and 2 MA’s. We FIT test the majority of our staff, at hire and annually on their birth month.

We have a separate small office dedicated to annual FIT testing, making appts in Bookings app.

have 2 FIT testing stations in Employee Health for new hire FIT testing and annual FIT testing. We have an Employee Health coordinator/receptionist, that does the majority of our new hires after the RN sees them for onboarding.

We have the 2 MA’s at another location every Monday morning to FIT test onboarding traveler’s, they go to the orientation and do it there.

We go out to our other smaller facilities several days per month for annual testing, 2 outlying small hospitals.

We use portacounts machines for FIT testing.

We really kicked this off at beginning of COVID when our facility was majority PAPR trained, very few FIT tested. We used a vendor to help catch us up out of Washington. And we had additional 2 travelers (as well as present team) to help us get up to speed fast. We haven’t used the vendor since mid 2020 and traveler’s ended about 9 months ago.

It's a big scope of work, we have about 6000 employees, plus many Locums, travelers, students and contracted employees.

Thank you.

Kit Schweitzer, RN, BSN, COHN | Employee Health Nurse | Employee Health Oregon Network

PeaceHealth | 3333 Riverbend Way | Springfield, OR 97477

peace-logo-lockup copy_480px office 541-222-2544 | fax 541-222-2548

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Charles Hackett
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2022 7:10 AM
To: MCOH/EH <mcoh-eh@mylist.net>
Subject: [MCOH-EH] Fit Testing

WARNING - UNVERIFIED EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email came from a sender outside of PeaceHealth. Do not open any attachments, click on any links, or provide information unless you recognize the email address it came from and were expecting this message.

Who is responsible for fit testing within your organization?

Do you outsource to a vendor? If so, who do you use?

If internal, what resources are dedicated to the program?

As always

Thank you

Charlie

Charles D Hackett, MD, MPH

Medical Director, Employee and Occupational Health, Lifespan

Chief Community and Family Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital

Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Brown University

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