Practical Strategies and Tools for Use by Occupational and Environmental Medicine Departments During COVID-19 Pandemic Surges.

Abstract

Occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) departments in healthcare institutions can be quickly overwhelmed when COVID-19 infection rates rapidly and simultaneously increase in the workforce and the patients served. Our goal is to present a detailed toolkit of practical approaches for use by front-line OEM specialists to address workforce management tasks during pandemic surges. Specific focus is on tasks related to employee symptom triage, exposure risk assessment, workplace contact tracing, and work restrictions. Tools include strategies used by customer call centers, two decision support algorithms (exposure due to cohabitation or non-cohabitation), a color-coded employee case tracking tool, a contact tracing protocol, and documentation templates that serve as memory aids for encounters. These tools are created with commonly used software. Implementation is feasible in most front-line OEM settings, including those with limited resources.