Questions and Answers about Health Care Workers and the Americans with Disabilities Act, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2008)

This series of questions and answers provides guidance on the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to health care workers. Authored by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal government agency that enforces the sections of the ADA that prohibit employment discrimination, the guide addresses numerous issues that may be of concern specifically to health care workers, including what constitutes a disability, a qualified individual, reasonable accommodation, and direct threat to safety, as well as issues surrounding the disclosure of medical information and enforcement of the ADA. The guide answers questions that might arise in several hypothetical scenarios in which health care workers may find themselves, and includes hypotheticals specifically involving HIV-positive employees. Each scenario is based on an actual case and includes citations.