We are joined by Dr. Paul Papanek, lead author of a newly released WOEMA guidance document titled “Workplace COVID-19 Outbreaks: Suggested Actions by Employers and Workers’ Compensation Carriers.” Sourced with the latest evidence, this document provides practical steps that employers can use to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in the workplace. Access the guidance document here.
As practitioners of occupational and environmental medicine, we speak the language of risk assessment and risk communication, public health measures for safe workplaces, and business continuity based on health and productivity framework. It became apparent in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic that an information gap existed between reasonable public health strategies to keep populations safe, and the employer community who sought this information from various, and at times, contradictory sources. Recognizing the role that occupational medicine physicians could have in bridging this gap, and acknowledging the hardships this pandemic had on employers large and small, the WOEMA legislative committee began a discussion around the question, what should employers do, when more and more of their workers contract COVID-19? Listen in to find out!