In late February 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published a new question and answer guide to the Americans with Disabilities Act entitled “Questions and Answers about Health Care Workers and the American with Disabilities Act.” (“Q&A”)  To explain its focus on health care employers, the EEOC prefaces its Questions and Answers with the following description of the health care workplace.

Health care is the largest industry in the American economy, and has a high incidence of occupational injury and illness.  Though they are committed to promoting health through treatment and care for the risk and injured, health care workers, ironically, confront perhaps a greater range of significant workplace hazards that workers in any other sector.  Health care jobs often involve potential exposure to airborne and blood borne infectious disease, sharps injuries, and other dangers; many health care jobs can also be physically demanding and mentally stressful.  Moreover, health care workers with occupational or non-occupational illness or injury may face unique challenges because of societal misperception that qualified health care providers must themselves be free from any physical or mental impairment.

Employees in other industries face similar and additional workplace hazards.  Moreover, physically demanding and mentally stressful jobs are not unique to the health care industry, so it is not entirely clear why the EEOC focused attention exclusively on health care employers.  Nonetheless, this latest publication by the EEOC signifies future increased scrutiny of employment decisions by health care employers as well as a probable increase in the number of direct enforcement actions.  Health care employers would be well advised to review the Q&A, which can be found on the EEOC’s website:  www.eeoc.gov/facts/health_care_workers.html.

Although the Q&A focuses on the health care industry, the publication provides insight to employers in other industries with regard to the EEOC’s interpretation and application of the ADA.  The rules under the ADA are the same for all employers.  The Q&A addresses the basic questions that any employer might face under the ADA, such as who is an employee, what constitutes a substantial impairment, what is a disability, what accommodations are reasonable, what is an undue hardship, and how to determine what constitutes a direct threat to the safety of self or others.  The hypothetical factual situations used to demonstrate the EEOC’s enforcement position on these issues are set in the health care environment, but the ideas conveyed, in many cases, may be analogized to a variety of employment settings.

The new Q&A certainly suggests an increased focus by the EEOC on disability issues in the health care arena.  In that the same rules apply to all employers covered by the ADA, employers in other industries should not be surprised also to experience increased enforcement activity under the ADA.  Accordingly, employers are advised to re-familiarize themselves with the requirements of the ADA, and to review their employment practices and policies to make sure they are compliant with the ADA, and to educate supervisors on how to recognize and respond to requests for accommodation.