PLEASE READ AND CASCADE TO ALL TEAM MEMBERS
TO: Ballad Health All
FROM: Eric Deaton, CEOC Incident Commander
DATE: March 19, 2020
TITLE: Team member PTO/MML use, job assignments and identification of high-risk team members
ACTION: Please cascade to all team members
Our healthcare facilities are vital public services, especially during a potential health crisis like the one we are facing now. We cannot stress enough the importance of being able to provide for the needs of our patients and medical staff. These are extraordinary circumstances, and they have required us to activate our Incident Command process.
In preparation for the rapidly changing environment and potential staffing needs, we want to clarify staffing expectations and the appropriate use of personal time off (PTO) and major medical leave (MML).
We are all expected to be available to provide the services required to meet the needs of our region. Based on the changing circumstances, some of us may be required to report to work in a different department or at a different time, regardless of our previous schedule or current department.
Clearly, this creates some uncertainty, which is understandable. As a healthcare team, we all must go where our patients need us to be and where the healthcare system requires our skills.
As such, we each share a responsibility to make plans for our families, including child care, so we can ensure our availability to serve our communities. Work is being done to provide community support for those of us with children, including a need for child care, and we are heartened by the wishes of our church communities and others who are willing to step up to help. More information on this should be forthcoming soon. In the meantime, our leadership team will work with individual team members as needed if scheduled shift adjustments are required.
Paid time off (PTO)
With regard to personal travel, if any of us require self-quarantine upon return, the use of PTO will be required. This might be required even if the destination was not determined to be high risk at the time of departure. It is important we all agree that any personal decision to travel is a choice made by each of us, so there will be no compensation other than earned PTO related to this decision.
If time off is requested, for any reason, Ballad Health’s standard attendance policy remains in effect, and PTO will be used. In any event PTO is exhausted, it will be considered leave without pay.
Major Medical Leave (MML)
MML, however, may be used following a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, whether the team member has been sent home following a departmental screening or called in due to illness. PTO will be used for the first 24 hours, and then reverted to MML thereafter for other illnesses and non-positive tests. Once a positive test result is received (Influenza or COVID-19), PTO will be changed to MML.
Should any of us test positive for COVID-19, and therefore MML is used in accordance with this policy, the team members will be eligible for the use of MML regardless of the available MML in the team member’s MML bank. In other words, the MML bank may be permitted to “go negative” if the individual team member’s MML bank is not enough to cover the time, not to exceed a pre-determined limit. We acknowledge that as this landscape continues to evolve, our response to questions and circumstances might require updated communication.
High-risk team members
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has defined high-risk healthcare workers as team members who are:
- Affected by heart or lung disease
- Diabetic
- Older than 60
- Pregnant
Ballad Health will do everything possible to limit COVID-19 exposure for high-risk healthcare workers, especially during higher-risk procedures (such as aerosol-generating procedures), if possible. This could include re-deployment to lower-risk areas.
Team members in non-clinical/non-patient care areas might be re-deployed to other support areas, to be determined as necessary.
While limited data are available regarding infection of novel coronavirus in pregnancy, more than 175,000 confirmed cases have been reported globally1. As scientific reports become available, there continues to be no evidence that pregnant women have different outcomes than their nonpregnant peers2.
As a precautionary measure, pregnant women have been included in the high-risk groups (higher risk for developing severe illness) for COVID-19. Being pregnant creates physiologic changes that can make women more susceptible to certain viral respiratory infections, like influenza. However, based on confirmed cases in China and thus far in the U.S., COVID-19 infections among pregnant women do not result in worse maternal health outcomes or in neonatal infection. Further, mothers infected with COVID-19 virus have had negative viral testing in their amniotic fluid, cord blood and breast milk3. With that, experts acknowledge this is a rapidly evolving situation, and information will be updated as it becomes available.
It is always important for pregnant women and others identified in high-risks group to protect themselves from illnesses. In low-risk scenarios, cough etiquette, hand hygiene, following recommended algorithms for rapid triaging of patients and use of PPE are sufficient to protect from exposure to COVID-194. Pregnant and other high-risk healthcare workers may not be ideal first responders if equally trained clinical team members are available, and time is sufficient to find replacement3.
Finally, all team members should do the same things as the general public to avoid infection:
- Avoid people who are sick
- Clean your hands often using soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer
- Cover your cough (using your elbow is a good technique)
- Social distancing when possible
In closing
We acknowledge that as this landscape continues to evolve, our response to questions and circumstances might require updated communication.
Please know our primary objective is to ensure we have qualified staff available to care for our communities – a goal we all share. Ballad Health is waiving certain accrual policies related to MML in order to make sick leave more readily available to those who might need it. We all expect this could be a difficult and unprecedented time for those of us who chose to work in this field. But this is the time our communities are counting on us, and Ballad Health – all of us – must remain committed to this noble purpose. We are grateful for every single person who has dedicated themselves in the service to others, and we will continue to pray for the health and well-being of not only our patients, but our team members and our families.
Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-resource-center#Sick
