There is a patient with a communicable disease on our unit... now what?

In the event of a confirmed communicable disease exposure on your unit or facility, the Provincial Workplace Health Contact Centre will be notified by either the Infection Control department at your site or by Public Health and the exposure criteria and risk to employees will be determined. 

If follow up is needed for employees, the managers of the affected departments will be notified by the Provincial Workplace Health Contact Centre with follow up instructions. 

As per instructions given to the managers, employees who have been notified to contact the Provincial Workplace Health Contact Centre are to do so at 1-866-922-9464 (select Option 1) to speak with an Communicable Disease Exposure Managment Nurse for a full assessment of the exposure. 

The Communicable Disease Exposure Management Nurse will confirm when you had contact with the source person, will review the exposure criteria with you, and will discuss follow up recommendations if you meet the exposure criteria. 

PRIVACY NOTICE: 

Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information by Workplace Health to support the COVID-19 Pandemic Response 

On September 13, 2021, the Provincial Health Officer announced a program of mandatory vaccination for health authority employed health care workers (HCWs). A similar Order was issued for Long Term Care and Assisted Living workers on September 2, 2021. 

The purpose of this notice is to provide you with information about the plans for the collection and use of vaccination status information about HCWs and medical staff working for the Health Authorities of BC and Providence Health Care to ensure compliance with these vaccination requirements and to ensure that we provide employees, staff and patients with a safe and healthy environment. 

COVID-19 Vaccination Status Information of HCWs is collected, used and disclosed by the Provincial Workplace Health Call Centre, the Health Authorities of BC and Provindence Health Care for the purposes of complying with public health orders and requirements, to ensure that employees are provided with a safe and healthy workplace, to manage the employment relationship, and to enable public health surveillance and health sector planning. Vaccination status information may also be aggregated and used to assess broader public health and health sector planning needs. 

Vaccination status information will continue to be maintained in a secure information system known as the Workplace Health Indicator Tracking and Evaluation (WHITE) system, which has been in existence for many years and is specifically designed to maintain workplace health and safety information. Only authorized users of the WHITE system will have access to your vaccination status information, and such access will take place only on a "need to know" basis and for authorized purposes. Users of WHITE do not have access to your personal health number or vaccination related health records. The system will only provide information verifying whether or not you have been vaccinated. 

Vaccination status information is collected in reliance on the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), sections 26(a),(c), (e), 27(1)(a)(iii), 27(1)(f) and 27(1)(b), the Public Health Act, and the E-Health (Personal Health Information Access and Protection of Privacy) Act. 

If you have any questions regarding this privacy notification, including the collection, use or disclosure of personal information, please contact: 

Roxanna Dehghan, Director Privacy Governance and Operations
Provincial Health Services Authority
200-1333 West Broadway Vancouver BC V6H 4C1
Phone:  1-855-229-9800
Email: privacyphsa@phsa.ca

Vaccination Status FAQ's.pdf