4.26.3 Tuberculosis Screening for Employees and Volunteers
A. Purpose
To define the process for tuberculosis (TB) screening at the University.
B. Persons Affected
All University of Texas at Tyler employees, contractors, and volunteers that spend two or more weeks of the year at the Health Science Center campus.
C. Definitions
Health Care Personnel (HCP) — Paid and unpaid persons working in health care settings. HCP have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials, including body substances (e.g., blood, tissue, and specific body fluids); contaminated medical supplies, devices, and equipment; contaminated environmental surfaces; or contaminated air. HCP include, but are not limited to, emergency medical service staff, nurses, nursing assistants, home health staff, physicians, technicians, therapists, phlebotomists, pharmacists, trainees, contractual staff not employed by the healthcare facility, and people not directly involved in patient care, but who could be exposed to infectious materials that can be transmitted in the health care setting (e.g., clerical, dietary, environmental services, laundry, security, engineering and facilities management, administrative, billing, and volunteer staff).
D. Policy
All employees, contractors, and volunteers, are required to participate in or abide by the TB screening program at the University, in accordance with CDC and DSHS guidance, as reflected in the University TB Exposure Control Plan.
In general, screening consists of a standard TB symptom questionnaire and an approved TB test used for initial, periodic and post exposure surveillance. The laboratory will report the results to Occupational Health as negative, positive, or indeterminate. An indeterminate result indicates that the test cannot be interpreted. TB tests reported as indeterminate or positive will be repeated in one (1) to four (4) weeks as determined by the reviewing physician. Two positive TB tests will be considered as a confirmed positive.
All employees and volunteers (processed through volunteer services) are required to have a TB test at onboarding unless they have proof of a confirmed positive TB test AND documentation of treatment for latent TB infection. All contractors are required to abide by the institutional TB screening policy.
Annual TB screening will be performed on all employees in the Biomedical Research (BMR) and Public Health Lab of East Texas (PHLET) who are reasonably expected to access specified research labs in which there is a potential for TB exposure. The annual list of affected BMR employees will be compiled by the office of research compliance in collaboration with the Infectious Organism Research Review Committee (IORRC) . The annual list of identified PHLET employees will be compiled by the PHLET Microbiologist Supervisor/Biosafety Officer under the direction of the Associate Director of Laboratory Services (Pathology). Annual TB testing for these employees will occur in May and June of each year. The department manager should identify and notify employees on the list that they must comply. These lists may include contractors who access these areas. Those contractors identified will be required to have annual TB testing through their employer.
Annual TB surveillance will include a TB questionnaire along with TB training modules which will occur in May and June in conjunction with the institutions' annual compliance training. The TB surveillance questionnaires will be reviewed by Occupational Health, and if further evaluation is necessary, the employee will be notified. It is the responsibility of the employee to comply with the TB surveillance policy.
If an employee thinks he/she should not be tested due to medical reasons or has other concerns, he/she must coordinate this through Occupational Health.
Human Resources reserves the right to notify employees and their directors and/or managers/supervisors of non-compliance after the initial notification period. A letter will be sent to employees from Occupational Health/ HR on the first working day of May detailing which PHLET and BMR employees are due for annual TB testing. Employees will have until the 30th of June to complete this requirement to remain in compliance. If testing is not completed by June 30th, employees will receive a letter from Human Resources placing the employee on leave without pay for five (5) working days.
Employees are encouraged to comply during the leave without pay period and upon approval by Employee Health and Human Resources, may return to work. Employees who do not comply are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.