Best practices for preventing COVID-19 at work

COVID-19 transmission is high in the community and the organization has been seeing clusters among staff on multiple units. 

At this point, it is critical to reinforce the main prevention strategies for COVID-19.  Please ask your unit Safety Coordinators to pay close attention to the items listed below when they are rounding on the unit:

• Get your COVID-19 vaccine if you haven’t already
  • While there have been more breakthrough cases with the delta variant, the vaccine still appears to be about 70% efficacious against the delta variant. In addition, the vaccine is still very effective at preventing severe cases of COVID-19 (hospitalization/death).
• Do not work if you have symptoms
  • Have a low threshold for symptoms and get tested for COVID-19 if you have any symptoms.
• It is critical to mask at all times while at work.
  • The only exceptions are when in a private office or when eating/drinking. Stay distanced from others (6 feet) when removing your mask. If you remove your mask around others, it is very likely that you will be exposed to COVID-19.
• When providing patient care or in a patient room, eye protection is needed.
  • Some health care worker exposures have occurred when caring for a patient who was not known to have COVID-19 and staff were only wearing a mask
  • Unvaccinated health care workers who have a high-risk exposure such as providing care to a COVID-19 patient without eye protection must quarantine for 10 days
• When seeing patients, they should be asked to wear a mask or offered a mask if they do not have one. This is both to protect them as well as to provide additional protection to the health care worker. Masks are most effective when both parties are wearing them.
  • Patients who can tolerate wearing a mask should wear a mask whenever health care workers are present in their room. Ask the patient’s provider if you are unsure if a patient can medically tolerate wearing a mask.
  • Patients do not need to wear a mask when in their room alone or while sleeping
  • Visitors are required to wear a mask at all times at Michigan Medicine
• Speak up if you see someone not wearing their mask correctly or not in the appropriate PPE to keep them from getting exposed.