Joseph Brant Hospital Statement

April 15, 2020

Our top priority at Joseph Brant Hospital is to protect the health and safety of our staff, physicians, patients and community during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important that the public and our staff are confident that we are absolutely committed to this task and that our policies and procedures follow best practices, and are in accordance with guidance from the Ministry of Health and Public Health, which is why we would like to provide clarification regarding recent media reports about health care workers returning to work after testing positive for COVID-19. 

To date, we have tested approximately 400 staff and physicians for COVID-19. Nine employees have been confirmed positive COVID-19 and 46 have results pending. No symptomatic or asymptomatic employees or physicians who have tested positive for COVID-19 have returned to work.

Our policy regarding staff who have tested positive has been and will continue to be consistent with current Ministry of Health guidance, which was last updated by the Ministry on April 10. We also work in close consultation with Public Health to ensure consistency and that we are doing everything we can to protect the safety of our patients, our staff and our physicians.

On April 6, we issued a communication to staff regarding our return to work policy which was consistent with Ministry guidance at that time. Joseph Brant Hospital has been following the updated April 10 Ministry of Health guidance: employees who test positive and are symptomatic are not to return to work and self-isolate, and staff who test positive and are asymptomatic are to stay home for 72 hours and then contact Employee Health Services for further direction. Every case is evaluated with Employee Health Services on a case-by-case basis.

We remain committed to providing safe, quality care to our patients, and protecting the safety of our staff and physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sincerely,

Eric Vandewall                                                                        Dr. Ian Preyra

President and CEO                                                                 Chief of Staff

Joseph Brant Hospital                                                            Joseph Brant Hospital

Attachments

Joseph Brant Hospital Statement_April 15