To: All MDH Personnel
From: Assistant Hospital Director
What
are the policies and procedures on a MDH employees who have been exposed to
persons and places with possible SARS outside
MDH and who, under the present circumstances, have the potential threat of
being discriminated, ostracized, and stigmatized by co-employees?
Definition of terms:
1. Persons with possible SARS include SARS
suspect, probable SARS, and confirmed SARS based on DOH-WHO case definition.
Case
Definition:
1. Patients under
surveillance for SARS- patients with history of travel to high risk
places and/or
exposure to persons with possible SARS
but without symptoms.
2. SARS suspect
patients-patients with history of travel to high risk places and/or
exposure to persons with
possible SARS but with symptoms of high fever, respiratory syndrome, dry cough.
3. Probable SARS
patients – patients described under SARS suspect patients with
laboratory and
chest X-ray , radiograph evidence of infiltrates consistent with pneumonia or
respiratory distress syndrome in chest X-ray findings that increase the
suspicion of SARS.
4. Confirmed SARS
patients – patients with a positive confirmatory tests of SARS.
2. Places with possible SARS include RITM, San
Lazaro Hospital, and other hospitals known to have admitted SARS patients and
communities quarantined by DOH for SARS-related reasons.
Policies and Procedures:
1. All MDH employees who have been exposed to
persons and places with possible SARS outside MDH shall report the exposure to
the Industrial Medical Services Department (IMSD) through phone. IMSD has to
utilize the screening questionnaire.
2. The IMSD physician, after evaluation and
with concurrence of an MDH Consultant on SARS (namly: Dr. Melecia Velmonte and
Dr. Cecilia Montalban), shall decide and certify whether the concerned MDH
employee shall be quarantined at home, allowed to report to work, or be
confined in a DOH-designated SARS referral hospital.
3. MDH employees prescribed quarantine at home or admitted to a
DOH-designated SARS center shall file a vacation leave and/or sick leave. If
all sick leave credits have been consumed, the leave can be applied with SSS as
Sickness Benefit.
4. A certification of fitness to report for work from an IMSD
physician and MDH Consultants on SARS is required for all MDH employees exposed
to persons and places with possible SARS outside MDH before they can report for
work. A copy of the certification shall
be submitted to Human Resource Department and the Department Head. All co-employees in the hospital and
department shall respect the certification.
Such certification shall be used to deter discrimination, ostracism, and
stigmatization of the concerned employees. All acts and behavior of discrimination,
ostracism, and stigmatization in the presence of such certification are NOT
allowed and will be given sanctions by the Human Resource Department and the
Hospital Disciplinary Action Committee.
RITA M. WANNINGER