COVID-19: Safety, Screening, Reporting, and Vaccinations

HHS Resources

• Staff & Physician Volunteer Vaccine Status Mandatory Reporting – If you have been contacted by your leader or Human Resources and asked to comply with the mandatory reporting requirement, you MUST take action. Upload proof of vaccination receipt from Ontario Health.
• How to complete your mandatory vaccination status report and upload your receipt: a step-by-step illustration
• COVID-19 Vaccination FAQs
• COVID-19 Vaccination Management
• Self-administered, home rapid antigen tests and result reporting
  (for staff and physicians who have not reported their vaccination status, or who have reported an unvaccinated status)
  • COVID-19 Home Testing FAQ (updated Sept. 20, 2021)
  • How to do a Covid-19 Rapid Antigen Self-Test: Illustrated instructions
  • How-to video
• Instructions for online education – self-enrollment through HHS learning management system “MyLearning” inside Citrix
  (for staff and physicians who have not reported their vaccination status, or who have reported an unvaccinated status)
• Form: COVID- 19 Medical Exemption
• Form: COVID- 19 Religious/Creed Exemption

Vaccine Intervention Resources

• Flyer – Minimal Contact Intervention
• Postcard – COVID-19 Getting Vaccine
• Quick Reference Tool – Minimal Contact COVID-19 Vaccine Intervention

Provincial Resources

• Directive #6 for Public Hospitals regarding compliance with a COVID-19 vaccination policy
• Resource Guide – Chief Medical Officer of Health’s Directive #6
• Provincial Vaccination Receipts
• Provincial Vaccination Booking System
• COVID-19 Vaccination Consent Form (Ontario Ministry of Health)
• COVID-19 Vaccine After Care Sheet
• Ministry of Health COVID-19 Vaccine-Relevant Information and Planning Resources
• COVID-19 Vaccines for Ontario
• Ethical framework for COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Online Self-Screening for Staff

Everyone is required to self-screen for symptoms of COVID-19 before their shift by accessing the online screening tool at hhsscreening.hhsc.ca

Remember to:

• Enter your employee ID exactly as it appears on your employee ID badge – including any leading zeros.
• Enter your name exactly as it appears in the myHR system (if there is an error in how it appears, please contact HR to correct it).
• Double-check all the details you have entered before you hit submit.

Read our FAQs for more information.

Thanks to all staff and physicians for helping to deliver on our commitment to a safe and healthy workplace for our patients and colleagues.

COVID-related Absences

Staff may be absent from work as a result of COVID-related illness, isolation, or otherwise. The following two FAQs on Self-Isolation Pay and Other COVID Leaves – Pay Implications will help you to understand your eligibility for a leave of absence, pay and/or government financial supports available depending on your situation.

For information about eligibility for retroactive payment, retroactive measures and timelines please review the FAQ on Retroactive Self-Isolation Pay. For all other questions related to payroll issues, please contact myHR@hhsc.ca.

If you have questions about COVID symptoms or need to speak to an employee health nurse, please contact the COVID hotline at extension 42200 or via email at covidforms@hhsc.ca.

Staff Safety Precautions

Your contribution as a frontline healthcare worker is essential to providing safe care to our patients. Here is a short list of precautions to consider adding to your routine to keep yourself and your family safe given your exposures in the workplace. You were likely already doing many of these things before COVID-19. They are more important now than ever.

Basic tips from Public Health Ontario

How to self-monitor
How to self-isolate
Self-isolation: Guide for caregivers, household members and close contacts

Parent and Caregiver Resources

The information below outlines the support available for employees who may need to be absent from work to accommodate their children’s schedules and schooling. The primary goal is to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to ensure that we maintain an active workforce to treat patients who need urgent and emergency care.

• Scenarios for staff when children are sent home from school/childcare
• Staff options when kids return to school FAQ

New COVID-19 only test

The HRLMP virology lab is now testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causative agent of COVID-19 as a stand-alone test, in addition to the current test where COVID-19 is tested along with the routine respiratory virus panel (Influenza A & B, RSV, Metapneumovirus, Parainfluenza 1, Rhino/Enterovirus, Adenovirus).

A nasopharyngeal swab is the preferred specimen. Proper collection is essential for a good quality specimen. Refer here for collection instructions.

 Order Entry mnemonics for testing:

• COVID-2019 ONLY – Meditech: COVID19 Dovetale: COVID-19 PCR
• Full respiratory virus panel including COVID-2019 – Meditech: CVIRNPS; Dovetale: Nasopharyngeal, virology detection

Please avoid duplicate testing. Only ONE of the COVID-19 tests on a NPS should be ordered at the same time

Sputum for COVID-19

• Sputum for COVID-19 is now tested at the HRLMP virology laboratory. Use the order entry meditech mneumonic COVID19.
• Sputum and other lower respiratory specimens (ETA, BAL) should not be ordered routinely at the same time as a NPS. If the NPS is negative and the patient has pneumonia, consider obtaining a sputum (non-induced) /ETA if the clinical picture is highly suggestive of COVID or if symptom onset to testing is >5-7 days. There may be high risk situations with disease severity when both may need to be collected at the same time, but this should be uncommon.

Alternative swabs and transport media

Refer to the Laboratory Test Information Guide

Please refrain from contacting the virology lab directly. Specimens are tested upon arrival at the laboratory and expedited testing of individual specimens is not possible. Please continue to transport COVID specimens by Porter NOT the tube system.

Travel Regulations Memo (Updated July 2021)

The federal government has now eased travel restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers who are permitted to enter Canada:

• If an individual has been fully vaccinated for greater than two weeks, they will not be subject to the federal requirements to quarantine when entering/returning to Canada.
• For travel within Canada, staff and physicians are asked to review the restrictions based on their provincial or territorial destination.

Effective on July 5, 2021, fully vaccinated Hamilton Health Sciences staff and physicians who return from travel abroad will no longer be required to isolate at home.

You can read more on the impact of the newly revised federal regulations for HHS healthcare workers here.

This reporting form must be filled and sent to Employee Health Services (EHS) before any international travel.

Questions can be submitted to EHS by email at covidforms@hhsc.ca.