COVID-19 has been a devastating public health emergency that has affected businesses of all sizes worldwide. Unlike other diseases, the infection requires monitoring in three phases.
The first phase involves a prevention protocol that aims at preventing employees from contracting COVID-19. If the infection could not be prevented, the second phase is an acute treatment protocol, wherein a COVID positive patient is treated with specific drugs including monoclonal antibodies to decrease symptoms and the risk of serious complications including death. The third phase involves a long-haul surveillance and treatment protocol that aims to monitor and treat the after-effects of COVID-19 infection. Many patients in fact experience a multitude of neurologic, cardiac, pulmonary and vascular complications after a COVID-19 infection. These complications are collectively known as long COVID or post-COVID syndrome, and can last from a few months to years.
EHRs help to record the different stages of an individual’s health with regards to COVID-19. This includes the date of diagnosis, treatments, vaccination history, after effects, and current health status.
Based on this, the employer with access to the employee’s EHR would be able to make the right decision regarding the employee’s ability to work.
The CDC guidelines advise businesses and employers to take steps for prevention and control of the spread of COVID-19 in the workspace.
The United States department of labor advises every employer to conduct regular screening of workers for COVID-19. The businesses that specifically require workers to be present onsite need to adopt onsite screening methods to prevent infection.
Since many businesses are reopening their physical worksites, the strategy of onsite screening helps maintain seamless operations.
Due to the COVID-19 prevalence, workers with different levels of health status and vaccination are present. Medical records are private and protected under HIPAA laws. In narrow circumstances, and with the consent of the employees, a manager can have access to the results of the COVID-19 screening tests performed at work.
It is important to stress that employees’ personal data are private and such supervision by a manager requires the consent of the employees. Employers cannot use use health data to make discriminatory decisions in the workspace.
Workers with COVID infection or those suffering from its after-effects can be monitored with the help of their EHRs. Because EHRs contain the results of COVID-19 screening test results, it will be convenient for the employer to track the employee COVID-19 status and help maintain a safe environment for his workers.
Also, based on the EHR data, the employer would also be aware of the number of workers who are not vaccinated and thereby take the necessary measures to prevent the spread of infection among the employees in the workspace.
These measures can include granting of additional leaves, financial assistance, and adjustment of operational hours so as to support the employee’s physical and mental wellbeing.
This EHR would also be helpful to decide if the workers need to be screened for COVID infection before their entry into the workspace or exclude those workers with sickness and also return to work of recovered workers.
Rapid, Accurate Health Testing For Events And Organization