Discovering that one of your workers has a confirmed case of COVID-19 creates a dilemma for employers. Under public health guidelines, employers are supposed to report the case to provincial and local health officials and notify persons with whom the infected worker had close contact within the past 48 hours of their own potential exposure. However, the fact that a worker has COVID-19 is privacy protected information that you’re not allowed to disclose without consent. Solution: You’re allowed to disclose the worker’s case without consent as long as the disclosure:
i. Serves a legitimate COVID-19 infection control purpose;
ii. Includes only the PHI necessary to accomplish that infection control purpose; and
iii. Doesn’t cast a stigma or subject the person to discrimination.
Here’s the kind of discrete notice you can post to put workers and other workplace occupants on notice of a confirmed COVID-19 case in the facility without violating the infected worker’s privacy or setting off a riot.