AHCA or The Agency For Healthcare Administration lays out guidelines that are designed to help protect the population we serve. One such example is the requirement of a health statement from a health care professional certifying that an individual is “Free of communicable disease”. The exact verbiage can be found here under FAC59A-18.005(6).
Clients often ask “Will my caregiver be screened for HIV?”, Will my caregiver be screened for the Flu?”, Will my caregiver be screened for TB or Tuberculosis?”, “What are you doing about the Zika Virus?” and many other questions related to health screening. While these are often very good questions, the reality is that it is impossible and cost-prohibitive to effectively screen for every possibility, which is why we defer to the regulations and requirements that govern our industry.
One of the most common requests, beyond a general Health Statement, is for Tuberculosis Screening, specifically when a caregiver is caring for a patient residing in a Nursing Facility. While some facilities may choose to further protect their residents by requiring TB (tuberculosis) screening. AHCA phased out the requirement for this testing in our industry years ago in favor of the health statement from a medical professional screening a caregiver for a number of ailments.
Clients may request whatever testing they believe is necessary from their caregiver, however, both client and caregiver should consider the cost and benefit of insisting on safeguards above and beyond those required by The Agency for Healthcare administration
For those interested here is a link to our local Department of Health’s TB testing program. The Department of Health also has other immunization programs available for those who are interested.
