COVID-19 policies, guidance for Health Sciences and WVU Medicine employees

As the University is welcoming students and employees back to our campuses for the fall semester, varying policies and guidelines have emerged from WVU, including the Health Sciences Center Morgantown, Charleston and Eastern campuses, and WVU Medicine. These include guidance for travel, COVID-19 exposures, testing criteria and daily screening procedures.

Due to the nature of their work and the need for healthcare providers to remain engaged in providing clinical services during the pandemic, specific guidance for individuals with clinical responsibilities as their primary role has been issued.

Many faculty employees have a joint employment relationship with WVU and WVUM, and there are also WVUM employees working at the HSC campuses that have no direct clinical responsibilities (e.g., administrative staff.) In an effort to balance policies and guidelines across the clinical enterprise, the following is guidance for HSC-affiliated employees:

• HSC-affiliated employees who provide direct clinical services to patients should follow the guidelines and policies established by WVU Medicine. This includes individuals with clinical responsibilities as their primary role such as clinical faculty, residents and clinical fellows. Information can be found on the internal COVID-19 CONNECT site or through the external portal https://portal.wvumedicine.org/ if you are off-site.
   
• HSC-affiliated employees who do not provide direct clinical services to patients should follow the guidelines and policies established by WVU. This includes all non-clinical teaching faculty, student learners, research fellows, research faculty and WVUM employees working at the HSC campuses who have no clinical responsibilities. Department chair discretion may be used for those employees that play a critical role in support of the clinicians. These employees should be completing the COVID Education Module and the daily WVU Wellness Check.
   
• HSC-affiliated employees working off-site should follow the guidelines and policies established by WVU, which includes completing the COVID Education Module and the daily WVU Wellness Check.
   
• Faculty and staff on the Charleston and Eastern campuses should continue to follow their established processes for reporting symptoms and potential exposures.

HSC-affiliated individuals with clinical responsibilities as their primary role may continue to receive the daily Wellness Check email until the systems team works through the process of removing them from the list. If you have questions or concerns, please consult directly with your supervisor, program director or dean.