Urgent situations: what this site will and will not do

Call public health first

A suspected or confirmed case, a cluster, or an enquiry from a health department is a matter for your local or state health department and for the clinicians treating the person. Contact them before commissioning environmental testing.

There are two practical reasons, beyond the obvious one. They may want sampling performed in a particular way, at particular points, by a particular laboratory, and testing done differently beforehand can be of limited use to their investigation. And they can tell you what other steps matter in the meantime.

If anyone is acutely unwell, that is a medical emergency and should be treated as one. We are not an interlocutor in that situation, and we will say so plainly rather than take the enquiry.

What we will and will not do

• We will scope the enquiry with you and, if you agree, pass it to one qualified sampling professional who covers the building, and we will say plainly that public health authorities take precedence over anyone you hire.
• We will not interpret a result, connect a result to a person, or advise on health.
• We will not suggest that testing resolves a health situation, and we will not present a negative result as reassurance.
• We will not collect information about any individual's health, and none should be entered into the form.

The intake form reflects this: it offers no clinical option at all, and it shows the public health notice beside the field rather than after it, see how we work.

Where environmental testing does fit

Once the health authorities are engaged, environmental sampling is usually part of what follows, often directed by them, sometimes performed by them, sometimes commissioned by the building owner under their direction.

1. Ask what sampling they want, at what points, by what method, and by whom.
2. Preserve the state of the system unless told otherwise: flushing or shocking a system before samples are taken can remove the evidence an investigation needs.
3. Document everything, operating conditions, temperatures, recent changes, maintenance records.
4. Use a laboratory and a method acceptable to them, not the fastest one available.
5. Keep the chain of custody rigorous, because these results may be examined closely later.

Other urgent situations that are not health situations

Not every urgent request involves illness. A reopening deadline, an audit next week, an insurer's letter, a client requirement with a date on it, these are genuinely urgent and are ordinary commercial urgency.

For those, the useful levers are turnaround time and provider availability. Say the deadline explicitly when describing the request: it changes which providers can help, and it changes the method that makes sense.

Frequently asked