Employee works in administrative position; no direct patient contact

Despite taking every precaution, it was inevitable that individuals working in the healthcare field would be impacted by the global pandemic of COVID-19. Today we learned a member of our Joslin Diabetes Center staff has tested positive.  The affected staff member serves in an administrative role that does not involve any direct contact with patients.

We immediately consulted with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston Public Health Commission and local infectious disease experts to receive expert guidance to deal with this situation. We have contacted all staff members who may have been in contact with this individual, and per DPH guidelines, have sent them home for self-isolation and symptom monitoring for at least two weeks.

We have also taken the following steps in an abundance of caution in response to this situation:

• We have cancelled all patient appointments for Tuesday, March 17 in our Clinic.
• We have initiated additional sanitization of the direct work station and surrounding spaces of the impacted individual, in addition to all of our common and patient-care areas.
• We have reached out individually to patients to address urgent care needs.
• We are expediting the already-planned move of non-urgent visits to be conducted via telehealth.

While this employee had no direct patient contact, we feel it is the right thing to do to disclose this confirmed case. The health and well-being of our patients, families and colleagues are our highest priority. Further information about the reopening of the clinic will be forthcoming.

More information for people with diabetes and COVID-19 may be found on our website at www.joslin.org/coronavirus

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