Confirmed Communicable Disease Exposures

A team member may be exposed to a particular communicable disease if there was a breach in engineering, administrative or PPE controls.  Please refer to the Communicable Disease Exposure intranet page on the Staff Safety Home Page for additional information on what to do if you have been, or believe to have been, exposed and/or reach out to a local Occupational/Employee Health Nurse as required.

However, any breach in a control resulting in a Blood and Body Fluid Exposure (BBFE) must be addressed immediately. 

Blood and Body Fluid Exposures

• A worker may sustain a workplace blood and body fluid exposure, if there was a breach in engineering, administrative controls or PPE.

• Workers who sustained a blood and body fluid exposure refer to the SHA BBFE Assessment Tool for guidance.

• Complete the appropriate first aid action, if required.

• The worker should notify their manager/supervisor.

• The worker will report their blood and body fluid exposure as per their local reporting process.

Note:  Workers should contact their local Occupational/Employee Health Nurse if they have any questions.

Note:   Reciprocal blood and body fluid exposures may occur in a workplace setting, workers must notify the Emergency Department Physician when this occurs.

Incident Reporting 

All workers must report their workplace communicable disease and blood and body fluid exposures as per their local reporting process. 

The worker’s manager/supervisor will investigate the communicable disease/blood and body fluid exposures as follows: 

• Review the exposure incident with the worker
• Complete a root cause analysis
• Determine short term corrective actions and implementation date
• Determine long term corrective actions and implementation date
• Implement and monitor the corrective actions

Note: The OHC Co-Chairs will be notified of all time loss claims