We continue to strengthen our coronavirus-related policies to keep our workplace, employees and students safe and, in that vein, want to ensure that members of our community are aware of two new initiatives:
Health Self-Reporting Tool Reminders
You have asked and we have listened! Beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, Aug. 5, all employees and students who are registered to use the self-reporting tool, online or via the ServiceNow app, will receive daily reminders to report their health status if they have not done so by 10 a.m. All employees and students who are registered in the self-reporting tool are expected to report their health status daily, seven days per week. As previously, SHARE employees are exempt from entering data on days off.
Clarification to UMMS and UMMHC Travel Policies
UMMS updated its travel policy most recently on July 24. In that communication, a 14-day quarantine was enacted to include travel to all states except those in New England, New York and New Jersey. This policy applies to all nonclinical employees and students. In contrast to Governor Baker’s policy, UMMS does not accept a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of return as an exemption to the quarantine.
UMMHC issued its own travel policy on July 31. In that travel policy, which is available on the UMMHC HUB, clinical employees are also expected to undergo a 14-day quarantine as above, but they are exempt from quarantine if they have a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival, or on arrival with quarantine until results are available. Of note, international travel still requires a 14-day quarantine upon return for all UMMS and UMMHC employees and testing will not reduce the time for quarantine. The following UMMS employees would be expected to follow the UMMHC travel policies when they are working in a clinical setting:
- Residents and fellows
- Third- and fourth-year SOM students
- MD/PhD students who are in their clinical years
- GSN students
- Clinical research personnel who work predominantly in a hospital setting
- Dually employed physicians who are returning to work in a clinical setting
Please contact your Department’s academic administrator if you are unsure which policy you should be following.
It is expected that all UMMS employees register their travel on the travel form available at mass.gov. Those who do not comply with these rules will be subject to a fine of $500 per day by the commonwealth.
