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  • 1.  Occupational Health

    Posted 06-27-2023 13:25

    Hello, IP has taken over Occupational Health at my facility and I'm in a bit over my head. We currently use an older version of UL OHM for occ. health and Epic for patient care. I am being asked by our IT folks to Epic for both so they can support fewer programs but I am told by the occ health nurses that we have to use separate programs to keep the occ health records that we are allowed to see separate from any other information/flags that might be in a person's Epic chart that we are not supposed to see as the employer. I see that Epic does have an occupational health module which I assume exists to separate occ health records from the rest but I can't find any first hand info from users. 

    Does anyone use Epic for both things and if so how does it work, do you like using it? Are there any regulatory pitfalls I should watch out for? 

    Thanks



  • 2.  RE: Occupational Health

    Posted 06-28-2023 11:46

    Hi Dawn - if you want to give me your direct contact info, I can see if one of our employee health leaders can connect with you. They made the transition to using the Epic module a couple of years ago. 



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    Susan Diskin MSN, RN, CIC | Infection Prevention and Control
    Manager Infection Prevention and Control - Legacy Health
    Phone: (503) 415-4881 | E-Mail: sdiskin@lhs.org
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Occupational Health

    Posted 06-28-2023 12:14
    Hello from APIC conference in Orlando!  We use Net Health. Yes the staff files are to be protected from prying eyes. We are transitioning from our old EHE to EPIC in a couple of months. I think it is a matter of setting securities. We like the net health program and will be keeping it.  On another note what is the consensus of the upcoming respiratory season? Are you planning on masking non vaccinated?
    Please share your thoughts!



    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Occupational Health

    Posted 06-28-2023 12:35

    Hello Nancy, currently I would prefer to not have masking based on vaccination status, but rather have it based on community transmission rates (i.e everyone masks during patient care when transmission is "high" or "substantial" or above a certain threshold). This has the advantage of unmarrying vaccination from actions considered punitive my many employees, and I would rather encourage employees think of masking as protective. It can also be applied to flu COVID and RSV whereas tying it to vaccination most likely will not able to be applied to RSV this fall. 

    All that said I am getting pushback from leaders who have observed higher rates of flu vaccination in the past when it was tied to masking. So it remains to be seen what will actually happen. 


    Original Message