NCJ Number
107896
Journal
Human Rights Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1987) Pages: 45-47
Date Published
1987
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Laws which guarantee the privacy and employment rights of hospital employees and patients also complicate a hospital's efforts to prevent the transmission of the AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) virus among employees and between employees and patients.
Abstract
State and Federal laws generally prevent prospective employers from inquiring into a job applicant's handicaps not directly related to the performance of a job's tasks. A hospital may not perform an AIDS antibody test on a job applicant or employee unless it can be shown that a person with AIDS is at high risk of transmitting the virus to others in the workplace. Establishing such a risk depends upon the provision of medical evidence regarding how the virus may be transmitted. This is an evolving field of knowledge. The privacy rights of hospital employees and patients may also prevent hospital officials from revealing the identities of hospital employees and patients who have AIDS. Hospital employees may not know that a particular patient has AIDS. This may limit their taking proper precautions in serving the patient and may also hamper their obtaining of evidence in a workers compensation claim involving the transmission of AIDS in the workplace.