Contact Tracing and Patient Notification of COVID-19 Exposure
Exposure of team members and patients to COVID-19 in the health care workplace remains a potential risk. The Contact Tracing and Patient Notification of COVID-19 Exposure policy outlines the contact tracing and notification procedures to be facilitated by Infection Prevention, Employee Health and other designated personnel at each UMMS hospital. These procedures are established in accordance with evolving knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission and updated protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Maryland Department of Health (MDH).
This policy was revised on April 21, 2022, to define the following two situations when UMMS will conduct contact tracing:
- There is a cluster of COVID-19 cases among team members, or
- A patient is suspected to have acquired COVID-19 in an UMMS facility
This reflects a departure from individual-level exposure risk assessment and notification to a focus on identification of clusters and workplace transmission with notification of potentially impacted units, departments, teams, or service lines.
Click here to access Contact Tracing and Patient Notification of COVID-19 Exposure policy.
FAQs
Under what circumstances will patients be notified of a potential exposure to COVID-19 in an UMMS facility?
Patients who have potentially been exposed to COVID-19+ team members will not be routinely notified unless a patient becomes infected with COVID-19 and is suspected to have acquired the infection during their hospital stay.
Who is responsible for contact tracing and facilitating notifications to patients?
Contact tracing is a shared responsibility between Infection Prevention, Employee Health, and other personnel designated by the facility and may vary by hospital. Patient notification will be a shared responsibility between the provider team and Infection Prevention or designee, on a case-by-case basis, and may vary by hospital and patient care area.
Under what circumstances and how will team members be notified of potential exposures?
Contact tracing teams will focus on identification of clusters and hospital-onset cases of COVID-19 among patients to determine if transmission among team members and/or patients is occurring. Potentially exposed team members will not be contacted on an individual basis; the contact tracing team will instead notify the unit, team, department, or service line that may have been in contact with a COVID-19+ individual and supervisors/managers will be responsible for contacting their team members as needed.
What is emergency contact tracing practice?
During times of extremely high prevalence of COVID-19, contact tracing becomes less efficient and is no longer an effective means of preventing the spread of infection. Under these circumstances, UMMS will implement emergency practice contact tracing and may discontinue or further modify its contact tracing processes in accordance with CDC or MDH guidance.
Should team members who test positive for COVID-19 notify others of their status?
Yes, any team member who tests positive for COVID-19 should report their test result to Employee Health (unless tested via the Employee Health Screening Hotline or self-scheduling). COVID-19+ team members are strongly encouraged to notify their close contacts or those with whom they have had prolonged contact in shared indoor spaces to allow those individuals to assess and manage their risks.