Significance of fever in hospital employees

Hospital employees are exposed to a variety of occupationally related hazards that can be categorized as infectious or noninfectious. Lost work time often results from these problems. Infection control practitioners receive many telephone calls of inquiry about these employees in terms of their transmissible infections. Little has been written concerning fever in the employee health setting. To determine the frequency of febrile illness in hospital employees, we conducted a prospective study of the employee health service from January to December 1987. Winthrop-University Hospital is a 533-bed community teaching hospital with approximately 2400 employees. During 1987, 2974 visits were made to the employee health service. Of these, 879 (30%) were for occupationally related illness or injury. Oral temperatures of greater than or equal to 100 degrees F were noted in 25 (2.8%) of the 879 visits. Fever occurred predominantly in employees with infections. Upper respiratory tract infection accounted for 268 of 544 (49%) visits for infection. In addition, 11 of 22 (50%) febrile episodes were related to upper respiratory tract infections. A total of 963 work days were lost because of illness or injury. Of these, 743 (77%) were related to an infectious illness; 67 sick days (7%) were attributed to infections with a febrile response. We conclude that fever is uncommon in our employee health care population and that upper respiratory tract infections were the single most common cause of fever. When an employee had a febrile illness, the lost work time was 9% of the total time loss because of infection.