Infected staff

[Guest219794]

I tried doing a poll, but had some technical difficulty.

At my hospital, if you are infected with Covid 19, it is treated same as an appy, or a car accident. They have no responsibility, and how you fare depends on your PTO bank, insurance plan, etc..

I am trying to find both the norm, and the range of responses from various hospitals.

So- how is your employer treating infected staff?

[DesiDani]

A friend was taking care of a patient who was coughing and stuff. That patient later turned out to be positive for Covid. So she had to be tested and the employee health nurse told her to go home, until the results came back. It took I think 2 or 3 days. Well when she got back, our floor unit manager wanted her to sign a warning paper for being off work without a doctors excuse. She wisely refused, but the audacity.

[StrwbryblndRN]

4 hours ago, DesiDani said:

A friend was taking care of a patient who was coughing and stuff. That patient later turned out to be positive for Covid. So she had to be tested and the employee health nurse told her to go home, until the results came back. It took I think 2 or 3 days. Well when she got back, our floor unit manager wanted her to sign a warning paper for being off work without a doctors excuse. She wisely refused, but the audacity.

I would think the positive test alone is a doctor's excuse. Guidelines then dictate when to come back to work.

[DesiDani]

9 hours ago, StrwbryblndRN said:

would think the positive test alone is a doctor's excuse. Guidelines then dictate when to come back to work.

My friend didn't test positive, the patient did. The health nurse was the excuse. Still mgt was dumb

[CaffeinePOQ4HPRN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

On 3/29/2020 at 5:12 PM, DeeAngel said:

I’m hoping to see a mass exodus from the medical and nursing fields after this. Life is too short to work in healthcare.

???

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

On 4/1/2020 at 5:45 AM, hherrn said:

Sorry- maybe I wasn't clear.

To be clear, even when it clearly work related, and you test positive, many hospitals are not treating it as work related. As with any non-work related illness, how you fare will depend on how you prepared. What insurance, how much money in the bank, how much PTO in the bank, etc.

How can one know that the virus is clearly "work related". Corona Virus is everywhere in the community. In Los Angeles County Antibody tests show that 15 to 28% may have been infected and never knew they had it and nation wide the rate of asymptomatic carriers is 25-80%. So unless a person is walking around full time in a HAZMAT suit there is no way to tell when or how someone contracted it. I had 14 days off while I was quarantined and was able to use my PTO (Which is what it's for) My employer did not try to write me up or take back PTO when I was tested negative.

I asked my lawyer sister if they refused my sick pay what I should do and she said file for short term disability. The rationale was that they would have to prove I didn't get it a work and there was no way to legally prove such a thing.

[DesiDani]

Too bad ELB doesn't kick in under these circumstances, but most places you have to use your PTO first. I have so much ELB, I can get all sorts of lifts and tucks.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

excuse my ignorance but what is ELB?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

10 hours ago, hppygr8ful said:

excuse my ignorance but what is ELB?

Possibly extended leave benefit? Just guessing from context. Too bad there isn't standardized language for such things.

[CaffeinePOQ4HPRN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

58 minutes ago, Rose_Queen said:

Possibly extended leave benefit? Just guessing from context. Too bad there isn't standardized language for such things.

There's so many (often interchangeable) acronyms for everything. It's always good to be clear. SOB??

[DesiDani]

Yep extended leave benefit. I think at my job, if you leave they have to pay you the unused PTO. They don't have to pay the unused ELB.