Safely Working Together
Originally published in Quest Diagnostics 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report
“When the COVID-19 pandemic began to roar across our country, we all had to reimagine nearly every aspect of our lives, including how we work and collaborate while continuing to fulfill the needs of our patients, customers, and communities. Safety is, and always has been, our primary concern.”
Steven E. Goldberg, MD Vice President, Medical Affairs and Population Health
While office-based employees worked remotely during the pandemic, the majority of our nearly 50,000 colleagues were literally on the front lines in 2021, continuing to work at our lab facilities, in logistics and transport, and in our patient service centers. Safety protocols had to be updated continually as conditions evolved.
Early in the pandemic, Quest assembled a cross- functional taskforce with representatives from the company’s Medical, Human Resources, Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities, Legal, and Communications teams to assemble policies and procedures. Continuing to protect the safety of those on-site, and ultimately returning our administrative employees back to our facilities, is informed by 4 core principles: safety, agility, unity, and business continuity. Multiple measures were implemented—including testing and contact tracing procedures, masking and personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements, occupancy limits, increased cleaning, on-site vaccination events (see sidebar), social distancing, and other mitigation efforts—to help us navigate the pandemic. As a result of our combined efforts, we have been able to keep workplace transmission low.
As part of our efforts, we provided all colleagues with a digital “playbook” that clearly communicates our framework and procedures for working together safely. The playbook stresses that it is incumbent upon all of us to adhere to these guidelines to keep one another safe and healthy on-site and in our homes. These efforts have allowed Quest to maintain and expand services when our communities needed us most.
Returning to working safely on-site
The health and safety of our workforce has been our top priority while navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. We closely monitored pandemic trends and current CDC guidance. Fortunately, we were able to plan for and determine a safe, phased, and flexible return-to-office process that began mid-March 2022.
Quest took multiple steps to make COVID-19 vaccinations available to all Quest colleagues:
- Albertsons’ vaccination events: Wood Dale, IL; Houston and Lewisville, TX; Baltimore, MD; as well as private appointments across the country
- Local partnerships: RANN Pharmacy near our Horsham lab and Collegeville PD offices; Managed Health Solutions at our Atlanta, GA lab; the Denver Department of Health at our Denver, CO facility; and mPathy in Marlborough, MA
- Vaccination clinics: St. Louis, MO; Pittsburgh, PA; and Lenexa, KS labs, by our own Employer Population Health division
