MUHC Orders Managers to Screen All Personnel Before the Beginning of Each Shift

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A yes reply to one of the eight question leads to immediate covid19 testing. (Image: Manuel’s Blog)

The McGill University Hospital Centre (MUHC), in an internal memo dated March 23, ordered its managers to screen all personnel at the beginning of each shift.

Personnel will be asked eight questions on personal symptoms, travel and possible contact with COVID-19 positive individuals. Employees who responds yes to one of the questions according to the memo will immediately be sent for testing at the closest employee service location.

This new MUHC staff COVID-19 testing protocol marks a major switch in the test requirements previously established by the hospital centre.

Numerous employees had informed MB, that even though they showed some of the symptoms because they didn’t have a fever or a shortness of breath, the employer representatives informed them they did not qualify for testing.

The notice addressed to all managers, physicians and MUHC personnel was transmitted a day before Quebec Health Minister Danielle McCann announced a revised provincial protocol to help protect patients and healthcare workers from COVID-19.

Among the directives included in the memo are that patients have to remain in their rooms during their hospital stay, and that all managers are to remind staff not to wear uniforms outside hospital grounds.

Employee Test Service Locations

  • Glen Adult: Drive or walk through test centre near ER
  • MGH: Tent outside ER parking Pine avenue.
  • Lachine: Tent outside ER entrance.

Screen Questionnaire Questions

  • The first section asks questions about your symptoms: Fever, Sore Throat, New cough within the last 7 days, Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, Nasal Congestion & runny nose and New onset of diarrhea.
  • Section 2 asks if in the last 14 days you have travelled outside Canada or been on a cruise.
  • The third section asks if in the last 14 days you have been in contact with anyone who tested positive for COVID-19.

The MUHC Team Is Made up Of:

  • 12,000 hospital staff
  • 1,356 physicians, dentists, pharmacists and fellows
  • 720 medical students
  • 1,700 researchers, research students, postdoc and fellows
  • 1,243 residents
  • 1,500 volunteers
    Source

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