Why do new hires need a vaccination assessment?
Ensuring your employees report their vaccination status is important. Health care workers are at risk of exposure to communicable diseases while at work and many of these are vaccine-preventable. Reporting vaccination status helps to ensure all vaccinations recommended for health care workers are completed and booster doses are provided as needed. Not only does this safeguard the health of the employees, it also protects patients in the event of an outbreak or exposure at your worksite.
What if I have a new employee in my department but they are not new to our Health Authority?
Any time an employee changes jobs, their new work environment may present different exposure risks so it is a great opportunity to encourage your new employees to check their vaccination status to make sure they are up to date. Employees can check their vaccination status using the employee vaccination and immunity status look up report. The link to the report associated with your employer is listed below:
BC Emergency Health Services
Fraser Health Authority
Interior Health Authority
Island Health Authority
Northern Health Authority
Providence Health Care
Provincial Health Services Authority
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
What happens when my employee is not assessed?
Employees may need to be restricted from working if they do not meet the immunity status for a particular communicable disease during an exposure event.
How do my employees obtain an assessment?
New hires will receive instructions in their onboarding package directing them to report their vaccination status using the online reporting tool at https://healthandsafety.healthcarebc.ca. If they are unable to use the online tool, they can contact the Provincial Workplace Health Contact Centre at 1-866-922-9464 (select Option 1).
Existing staff can utilize their employee vaccination and immunity status look up report noted above to determine which vaccinations are needed and can follow the instructions for their Health Authority to obtain any missing vaccinations as posted here.
PRIVACY NOTICE:
Privacy information to support data collection for communicable disease exposure management
Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information by the Health Authorities and Providence Health Care to support exposure management in response to a case of a communicable disease event, pandemic, or novel pathogen.
On March 1, 2019, Deputy Minister Steve Brown issued a mandate letter to the Health Authorities of BC and Providence Health Care following a significant surge in measles exposure event activity in the province, compromising patient care and worker health. This letter outlines the Ministry's expectation that health authorities follow BC immunization guidelines for health care workers and that all regions implement processes to collect and maintain records of immunization/immunity for all health care workers including physicians. The letter further indicates these records should be maintained in the Workplace Health Indicator Tracking and Evaluation (WHITE) database to facilitate rapid assessment following communicable disease exposures.
The purpose of this notice is to provide you with information about the plans for the collection and use of vaccination/immunity status information about health care workers and medical staff working for the Health Authorities of BC and Providence Health Care to ensure compliance with these vaccination and immunity record requirements and to ensure that we provide employees, staff and patients with a safe and healthy environment.
Vaccination/immunity Status Information of health care workers is collected, used and disclosed by the Health Authorities of BC and Providence Health Care for the purposes of complying with ministry of health expectations 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/immunity status information may also be aggregated and used to assess broader public health and health sector planning needs.
Vaccination/immunity 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/immunity 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 non-immunity related health records. The system will only provide information verifying whether or not you have been vaccinated or have immunity.
Vaccine and Immunity 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:
Phone: 1-855-229-9800
Email: privacy@phsa.ca
