Wis. Admin. Code Department of Health Services DHS 134.44 - Employees and other service providers
(1) DEFINITION. In
this section, "employee" means anyone directly employed by the
facility.
(2) QUALIFICATIONS AND
RESTRICTIONS.
(a) No person under 16 years of
age may be employed by the facility to provide direct care to residents. An
employee under 18 years of age who provides direct care to residents shall work
under direct supervision.
(b) No
person with a documented history of child or resident abuse, neglect or
exploitation may be hired or continue to be employed by the facility.
(3) AGREEMENT WITH OUTSIDE
RESOURCE.
(a) If the facility does not itself
provide a required service, it shall have in effect a written agreement with a
qualified professional or agency outside the facility to provide the service,
including emergency and other health care. The facility shall ensure that the
outside services and service providers meet the standards contained in this
chapter.
(b) The written agreement
under par. (a) shall specify that the service be provided by direct contact
with the residents and shall contain the responsibilities, functions,
objectives and terms agreed to by the facility and the professional or agency.
The agreement shall be signed by the administrator or the administrator's
representative and by the service provider or service provider's
representative.
(4)
PERSONNEL PRACTICES.
(a) The facility shall
have written personnel policies that are available to all employees and that
are substantially followed.
(b) The
facility shall provide written position descriptions defining employee duties
for use in employee orientation, in development of staffing patterns and in
inservice training.
(c) Employees
shall be assigned only to duties consistent with their educational and work
experience qualifications and training. Employees who work directly with
residents shall be able to demonstrate that they have the skills and techniques
necessary to implement the individual program plans for residents under their
care.
(d) Employees who provide
direct care to residents may not be required to provide housekeeping, laundry
or other support services if these duties interfere with the exercise of their
direct care duties.
(5)
PHYSICAL HEALTH CERTIFICATIONS.
(a)
New employees. Every employee shall be certified in writing by
a physician, physician assistant or advanced practice nurse prescriber as
having been screened for the presence of clinically apparent communicable
disease that could be transmitted to residents during the normal performance of
the employee's duties. This certification shall include screening for
tuberculosis within 90 days prior to employment.
(b)
Continuing employees.
Employees shall be rescreened for clinically apparent communicable disease as
described in par. (a) based on the likelihood of exposure to a communicable
disease, including tuberculosis. Exposures to a communicable disease may be in
the facility, in the community or as a result of travel or other exposure.
(c)
Non-employees. Persons who reside in the facility but are not
residents or employees, such as relatives of the facility's owners, shall be
certified in writing as required in pars. (a) and (b).
(6) DISEASE SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL. When an
employee or prospective employee has a communicable disease, he or she may not
perform employment duties in the facility that may result in the transmission
of the communicable disease until the facility makes safe accommodations to
prevent the transmission of the communicable disease.
Note: The Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits the termination of an employee or the non-hiring of a person solely because that person has an infectious disease, illness or condition.
(7)
VOLUNTEERS. Facilities may use volunteers provided that the volunteers receive
the orientation and supervision necessary so that resident health, safety and
welfare are safeguarded and that the facilities do not rely upon volunteers to
provide direct care to residents.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.