Keeping ill healthcare personnel from coming to work, and helping them follow work restrictions when needed, is not something occupational health services (OHS) can do alone. It takes communication and collaboration with supervisors, senior management, human resources, infection prevention and control (IPC) services, legal departments and healthcare personnel themselves. That is the subject of section 2 of CDC's guideline Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel (Part I, Infrastructure and Routine Practices).
The recommendations
| For | Recommendation | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.a | Healthcare organization leaders and administrators | Set organizational goals, policies and procedures, infrastructure and interventions that foster communication and collaboration about occupational infection prevention and control |
| 2.b | Occupational health services leaders and staff | Engage senior leaders, administrators, leaders of other programs that share occupational IPC work, and healthcare personnel, to make decisions together |
| 2.c | Occupational health services leaders and staff | Take part in developing the policies, procedures and interventions that affect occupational IPC |
Section 1, Leadership and Management, has further related recommendations.
Why it matters
Good internal communication between OHS, other departments and healthcare personnel can make both staff and patients safer. Explicit collaboration with other departments — IPC services above all — improves staff safety and the delivery of occupational IPC services. Multidisciplinary committees can bring together the expertise needed for cross-cutting decisions, such as assessing and choosing sharps with engineered sharps injury protection (SESIP). And coordination across OHS, supervisors, management, human resources, IPC, legal and staff is necessary to make it less likely that ill personnel report for work, and to encourage them to follow work restrictions when needed.
Who OHS works with
- IPC services and clinical services
- Engineering and facility management; environmental services
- Organization leaders and managers; healthcare personnel representatives
- Human resources; workers' compensation
- Information technology; laboratory services; pharmacies
- Legal departments, such as risk management
- Procurement and central supply
- Quality assurance and accreditation committees; safety committees
- Volunteer departments
What gets in the way
- Dispersed staff and worksites — for example, a network of several hospitals or healthcare settings, or occupational health services that are contracted or off-site.
- Different requirements for people the facility does not directly employ, such as credentialed private-practice physicians and contractors.
Sources
Based on "2. Communication and Collaboration," Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel, Part I: Infrastructure and Routine Practices, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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