Can a “Reasonable Accommodation” Be Made?
In determining whether a given individual poses a “significant risk” to the health or safety of others because of his or her infectiousness, the provider must also determine whether there are not “reasonable accommodations” (or modifications) that might be made to eliminate the risk of transmission. An accommodation is reasonable as long as it eliminates the risk of transmission without imposing an undue burden on the provider or requiring fundamental alterations in program services. Thus, if a residential program already offers primary care services to its patients and has in place the engineering and other controls needed to establish respiratory isolation for patients with infectious diseases transmitted by airborne means (as discussed in chapter 6), it would be reasonable to require that program to make those services and its facility available to a patient with TB in the infectious stage. Or, if a methadone maintenance treatment program has the staff and resources to provide medic
