In response to COVID-19 in April 2020, the Physician Occupational Safety and Health (POSH) service was made available to VCH medical staff including physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, and midwives; it has also served other non-medical staff healthcare workers on several occasions.
More recently, the reduction in COVID-19 demands has positioned POSH to spend more time on other occupational health concerns of medical staff.
As COVID-19 cases continue to decline across VCH, particularly among our well-vaccinated medical staff, POSH is taking on more occupational health responsibilities to continue to improve services for medical staff - who, as mostly independent contractors, are not covered by the Provincial Workplace Health Call Centre. Working closely with Public Health, People Safety and Wellness, and Infection Prevention and Control, we continue to support medical staff with:
- Infectious disease contact tracing and exposure management: tuberculosis, invasive group A streptococcal disease (iGAS), meningococcal disease, Haemophilus influenzae type b (HiB), Varicella Zoster virus, blood and body fluid exposure management, etc.
- Workplace accommodation advice, if requested.
- Participation in workplace voilent incident follow up, as needed.
- Respirator fit test tracking and notification.
- Vaccine tracking and notifications for COVID-19; likley to be extended to seasonal influenza.
- Sharing aggregated data and scientific expertise related to medical staff occupational health.
We continue to be staffed by physicians and medical students, with hours adjusted as demands require, but with the ongoing commitment to prompt responses to all concerns.
To better reflect the professionally diverse community it serves, the POSH name is changing to Medical Practitioners Occupational Fasety and Health (mPOSH) service.
mPOSH's new e mail address will be mPOSH.vch@ubc.ca.
What mask to wear when caring for patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19
POSH - COVID-19 Phase 1 Data
POSH - 6 Key things You Told Us
Guidance for N95 Respirator Use & Fit-Testing Medical Staff
Guidance for N95 Respirator Fit-Testing Residents
