Managed care services provider Genex Services L.L.C. on Wednesday said it has developed workers compensation-specific clinical guidelines for treating Ebola and the related Marburg virus from an injured worker's perspective.
The guidelines, “Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses: Ebola and Marburg,” are designed to help case managers, employers and physician advisers understand the diseases and the treatment process, recognize early warning signs, and set return-to-work goals for infected workers, according to Genex officials.
The guidelines combine information from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clinical research and actual experience, and put it into a workers comp context to address questions that arise when a worker becomes infected, such as “What treatments are appropriate? When is isolation appropriate? What rehabilitation is necessary? What precautions to take after (the infected worker) is treated and after they return to work?” Dallas-based Dr. Maury Guzick, Genex branch manager and physician adviser who led the development of the guidelines, said.
“All of those various areas are looked at from the focus of the injured worker. What can they expect, what can their employers expect, what can we expect from the medical field, and what needs to be done to give the best experience?” Dr. Guzick said.
Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Genex plans to make the guidelines available for customers in January.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tightened safety rules nationwide for all hospitals that treat patients with Ebola after two nurses contracted the infectious disease when treating a Dallas hospital patient who died earlier this month from the virus.