Reported variability in healthcare facility policies regarding healthcare personnel working while experiencing influenza-like illnesses: An emerging infections network survey

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
• Personal Author:
  Babcock, Hilary M. ; Beekmann, Susan E. ; Pillai, Satish K. ; Santibanez, Scott ; Lee, Leslie ; Kuhar, David T. ; Campbell, Angela P. ; Patel, Anita ; Polgreen, Philip M.
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Presenteeism, or working while ill, by healthcare personnel (HCP) experiencing influenza-like illness (ILI) puts patients and coworkers at risk. However, hospital policies and practices may not consistently facilitate HCP staying home when ill.
  
  Objective and methods:
  
  We conducted a mixed-methods survey in March 2018 of Emerging Infections Network infectious diseases physicians, describing institutional experiences with and policies for HCP working with ILI.
  
  Results:
  
  Of 715 physicians, 367 (51%) responded. Of 367, 135 (37%) were unaware of institutional policies. Of the remaining 232 respondents, 206 (89%) reported institutional policies regarding work restrictions for HCP with influenza or ILI, but only 145 (63%) said these were communicated at least annually. More than half of respondents (124, 53%) reported that adherence to work restrictions was not monitored or enforced. Work restrictions were most often not perceived to be enforced for physicians-in-training and attending physicians. Nearly all (223, 96%) reported that their facility tracked laboratory-confirmed influenza (LCI) in patients; 85 (37%) reported tracking ILI. For employees, 109 (47%) reported tracking of LCI and 53 (23%) reported tracking ILI. For independent physicians, not employed by the facility, 30 (13%) reported tracking LCI and 11 (5%) ILI.
  
  Conclusion:
  
  More than one-third of respondents were unaware of whether their institutions had policies to prevent HCP with ILI from working; among those with knowledge of institutional policies, dissemination, monitoring, and enforcement of these policies was highly variable. Improving communication about work-restriction policies, as well as monitoring and enforcement, may help prevent the spread of infections from HCP to patients.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Health Personnel Health Policy Humans Influenza, Human Influenza Vaccines Physicians Presenteeism Surveys And Questionnaires
• Source:
  Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 41(1):80-85
• Pubmed ID:
  31722757
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7018563
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U50 CI000358/CI/NCPDCID CDC HHS/United States ; UL1 TR002537/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  41
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:9bcce66d67ad2df9021e915fe0ccf6dfe3984d90f420194d4e979da363ad5a30
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/85096/cdc_85096_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 803.57 KB ]