In an urgent need to protect healthcare workers from H1N1 Flu, the today CDC has issued guidance on infection control measures to prevent transmission of 2009 H1N1 influenza in healthcare facilities. The CDC continues to recommend that healthcare workers take time away from work if they are ill. The issue unanswered is whether workers' compensation insurance will pay temporary disability benefits for the absence?
The CDC has defined healthcare personnel as, "....For the purposes of this guidance, healthcare personnel are defined as all persons whose occupational activities involve contact with patients or contaminated material in a healthcare, home healthcare, or clinical laboratory setting. Healthcare personnel are engaged in a range of occupations, many of which include patient contact even though they do not involve direct provision of patient care, such as dietary and housekeeping services. This guidance applies to healthcare personnel working in the following settings: acute care hospitals, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, physician’s offices, urgent care centers, outpatient clinics, and home healthcare agencies. It also includes those working in clinical settings within non-healthcare institutions, such as school nurses or personnel staffing clinics in correctional facilities. The term “healthcare personnel” includes not only employees of the organization or agency, but also contractors, clinicians, volunteers, students, trainees, clergy, and others who may come in contact with patients."
- Instructed not to report to work, or if at work, to promptly notify their supervisor and infection control personnel/occupational health.
- Excluded from work for at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medicines.
Healthcare personnel who develop a fever and respiratory symptoms should be:
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