Dataset Information

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

ABSTRACT:

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.

SUBMITTER: Babcock HM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7018563 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

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

Babcock Hilary M HM Beekmann Susan E SE Pillai Satish K SK Santibanez Scott S Lee Leslie L Kuhar David T DT Campbell Angela P AP Patel Anita A Polgreen Philip M PM

Infection control and hospital epidemiology 20191114 1

<h4>Background</h4>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.<h4>Objective and methods</h4>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.<h4>Results</h ...[more]

PMID: 31722757

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Project description:BackgroundA number of working time arrangements have been linked to negative consequences for both health personnel and their patients. A common hypothesis put forth to explain these findings suggests that certain working time arrangements lead to negative patient consequences due to the adverse impact they have on employee health. The purpose of this study is to use systematic reviews to investigate whether employee health explains the relationship between working time arrangements and patient safety.MethodsA systematic literature review was performed including published reviews and original studies from MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Cinahl and Web of Science investigating working time arrangements for healthcare personnel, employee health and patient safety. In addition, we screened reference lists of identified reviews. Two reviewers independently identified relevant publications according to inclusion criteria, extracted findings and assessed quality.ResultsSix thousand nine hundred thirty papers were identified, of which 52 studies met our criteria. Articles were categorized into five groups according to how they approached the research question: 1) independent analyses of relationship between working time arrangements and employee health, and of working time arrangements and patient safety (5 studies); 2) relationship between working time arrangements on both employee health and patient safety (21 studies); 3) working time arrangements and employee health as two explanatory variables for patient safety (8 studies); 4) combinations of the above analyses (7 studies); 5) other relevant studies (5 studies). Studies that find that working time is detrimental to employee health, generally also find detrimental results for patient safety. This is particularly shown through increases in errors by health personnel. When controlling for employee health, the relationship between working time arrangements and patient safety is reduced, but still significant.ConclusionsResults suggest that employee health partially (but not completely) mediates the relationship between working time arrangements and patient safety. However, there is a lack of studies directly investigating employee health as a mediator between working time arrangements and patient safety. Future studies should address this research gap.

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Dataset Information

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

Background

Objective and methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

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

Similar Datasets

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