The BJC HealthCare/WashU Med COVID-19 Exposure/Illness Hotline continues to receive a very high number of calls from employees concerned about symptoms, testing and returning to work. The team is working hard to meet the demand and we ask everyone to show grace and understanding to their Occupational Health colleagues, as the number of calls has far exceeded capacity.
To streamline, we’ve updated our WashU Med COVID-19 guidelines for employees. Please note that in certain instances the protocols for health-care workers and non-health-care workers differ. Health-care workers are currently being prioritized for testing; symptomatic individuals should call the COVID-19 Exposure/Illness Hotline at 314-362-5056 to arrange a test. For now, those who work at home and non-clinical employees may find it faster to get tested elsewhere and to report results to Occupational Health.
Employees are expected to notify Occupational Health at occupationalhealthservice@wusm.wustl.edu during normal business hours for the following:
- Reporting positive COVID-19 test results from outside sources if they did not go through the COVID-19 Exposure/Illness Hotline for testing. We highly recommend symptomatic health-care workers arrange testing through the hotline, as not all outside testing methods meet OSHA requirements.
- Before returning to work after absence from COVID-19, flu or other communicable diseases.
Employees should call the COVID-19 Exposure/Illness Hotline at 314-362-5056:
- If they are sick or experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19, flu or other infectious disease, regardless of how mild, for assessment and potential COVID-19 and/or flu testing.
- Note that we cannot perform asymptomatic exposure testing at this time. Options for this include your primary care physician, local pharmacy, local urgent care, or several city pop-up testing sites.