Returning Ebola Health Workers to Get Paid Leave at Hospital

Employees returning from the West African countries hit hardest by Ebola will get a 21-day paid furlough from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center upon their return.

The policy applies to employees who must travel to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea for personal reasons or with permission from the hospital’s chief of human resources, the hospital said in an e-mail to employees. The paid leave covers the 21-day incubation period of the virus. Hospital employees are prohibited from traveling to the three countries for research, internships, service, conferences, presentations or teaching without permission, according to the statement.

New York, New Jersey and Illinois said yesterday they will quarantine anyone who had direct contact with Ebola patients when they arrive at the states’ airports. So far, at least one health worker has been quarantined in New Jersey after helping treat Ebola patients in West Africa.

Craig Spencer, an emergency department physician at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia, was diagnosed with Ebola this week after returning to New York from Guinea, where he was working with Doctors Without Borders treating Ebola patients. He had not been back to work since his return.

“We admire and appreciate all of those willing to do this vital and selfless public health work around the globe,” the hospital said in an Oct. 23 statement on Spencer’s diagnosis.