1. Retrospective evaluation of the symptom-based work restriction strategy of healthcare providers in the first epidemic of COVID-19 at a tertiary care hospital in Tokyo, Japan
- Author
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Hiroki Shikano, Yuki Uehara, Rino Kuboki, Erika Tashino, Fumiko Nakahara, Yumi Matsumoto, Satomi Kusakabe, Chizumi Fukazawa, Takahiro Matsuo, Nobuyoshi Mori, Akiko Ayabe, Torahiko Jinta, Fumika Taki, Fumie Sakamoto, Osamu Takahashi, and Tsuguya Fukui
- Subjects
allergic rhinitis ,Epidemiology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Health Policy ,Health Personnel ,education ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ,Article ,Tertiary Care Centers ,coronavirus disease 2019 ,symptom-based work restriction ,Infectious Diseases ,Japan ,healthcare providers ,Humans ,Tokyo ,Retrospective Studies - Abstract
Background: Effectiveness of restricting healthcare providers (HCPs) from working based on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-like symptoms should be evaluated. Methods: A total of 495 HCPs in a tertiary care hospital in Tokyo, Japan, participated in this study between June and July in 2020. Analysis of serum anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody to identify infected HCPs, questionnaire surveys, and medical record reviews were conducted to evaluate the appropriateness of symptom-based work restriction for 10 days. Results: Five participants (1.0%) were identified as infected. Forty-six participants (9.3%) experienced work restriction and all five infected participants (10.8%) restricted working, even though the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was positive only in four participants (80.0%). There were no unexpectedly infected participants among those who did not experience work restriction. However, only 46 of 110 HCPs with COVID-19-like symptoms (41.8%) restricted themselves from working. Discussion: Symptom-based work restriction strategy successfully prevented infected HCPs to work, but showed low specificity to identify truly infected HCPs, and their low adherence to the strategy was revealed. Conclusions: HCPs with COVID-19-like symptoms should restrict working as the first step of infection prevention, but the strategy to identify truly infected HCPs is necessary.
- Published
- 2021