Health certificate for work: what it is, which tests it takes and how long it lasts

It is an official Health Department card certifying that an authorized physician examined you and you are free of contagious diseases that would incapacitate you for your trade or endanger public health. It comes from Act No. 232 of August 30, 2000 (Puerto Rico Health Certification Act) and Regulation 138 of the Health Secretary. It is not just any form: the card is provided by the Health Department, carries a control number, the seal of SARAFS (the Auxiliary Secretariat for the Regulation and Accreditation of Health Facilities), the authorized physician’s original signature with license number, and your data — full name, age, sex, address, trade and workplace. The original is handed to you; the physician keeps a copy with the results for two years. Signing blank cards and rubber-stamp signatures are prohibited.

More than a right, it is an obligation tied to certain jobs. The regulation defines a public establishment as businesses and industries handling or producing food or drink — restaurants, colmados, fondas, cafés, stores handling food, food stands (including mobile ones), bakeries, pastry shops, candy shops, milk depots or pasteurization centers, dairies, slaughterhouses, bottled water or soft drink establishments — and establishments and institutions providing direct health services to the public, such as hospitals and dispensaries, plus any analogous establishment. If you work or will work in one of these, you need the certificate, and the employer must have their own too: the law obligates them to require it of every person they employ and prohibits employing anyone without it.

• Working or going to work in a covered establishment: handling or producing food and drink, or direct health services to the public.Verified against the official source
• Passing a medical evaluation with a physician authorized by the Health Department, at the location the Department authorized (the authorization must be displayed visibly).Verified against the official source
• A tuberculin test performed no more than 3 months before the certificate’s issue date; if positive, the physician orders a chest X-ray.Verified against the official source
• A syphilis serology test performed within 6 months before issuance; if reactive or weakly reactive, a confirmatory test is done.Verified against the official source
• For those working in food production, handling or preservation: a throat and/or stool culture, as the physician determines.Verified against the official source

• Identification with your details: the certificate card requires your name with both surnames, age, sex, home address, trade and workplace.
• Results of prior tests if you have them within the windows (tuberculin up to 3 months, serology up to 6): results older than those terms are not valid.

1. 1

   Step 1: Find an authorized physician, not just any doctor

   Only a physician holding the Health Department’s health-certificate authorization may issue it, and only at the authorized location (private office or health institution). The material we read publishes no public directory of authorized physicians, so ask directly: the authorization must be displayed visibly at the office. If you don’t see it, ask for it. For questions, SARAFS’s Health Certificates Division answers at (787) 765-2929, extensions 4751 and 4759.

2. 2

   Step 2: Take the tests within the windows

   The medical evaluation is documented on a Health Department form. The tuberculin test must have been done within the 3 months before issuance (read 48 to 72 hours after administration), and the syphilis serology within the previous 6 months. Lab tests are processed at Department-authorized clinical laboratories, and results are interpreted by the authorized physician. If you handle food, the physician may also require a throat or stool culture.

3. 3

   Step 3: If a test comes back positive, there is a path, not a wall

   A positive tuberculin leads to a chest X-ray; a reactive serology leads to a confirmatory test. Confirmed positive results are evaluated by the physician, documented, and you are referred for treatment or follow-up at the corresponding epidemiology clinic; by presenting evidence of having been evaluated and treated, the process continues. The physician also reports positives to the Regional Epidemiology Office, as Order 302 of 2013 requires.

4. 4

   Step 4: Receive your card and check it

   The original is yours. Verify it has the control number, your complete details, trade and workplace, the date, the physician’s original signature (not a rubber stamp) with license number, and the SARAFS seal. The issue date corresponds to the date of the first test performed, and the one-year validity runs from there.

5. 5

   Step 5: Renew it every year

   The certificate is valid one year. The law’s statement of motives describes it as an annual requirement for employees of these industries, so don’t wait for the employer or an inspector to flag it: schedule the renewal, counting from the date of the first test, not the day you picked up the card.

With any physician authorized by the Health Department to issue health certificates, at their private office or authorized institution. The Health Certificates Division (SARAFS) provides guidance at (787) 765-2929, extensions 4751 and 4759; its office is at the Antiguo Hospital Ruiz Soler, 1090 Marginal Ruiz Soler, Bayamón.

• Arriving with expired test results: the tuberculin cannot be more than 3 months old nor the serology more than 6 at certificate issuance.
• Counting validity from the day you picked up the card. The certificate is issued with the date of the first test performed, and the year runs from there.
• Assuming a positive test disqualifies you. The process contemplates a chest X-ray, confirmatory tests and referral to the epidemiology clinic for evaluation and treatment.
• Accepting a card without the SARAFS seal, without a control number, or with a rubber-stamp signature: it is not a valid certificate.
• Believing the employer can let it slide. The law obligates the employer to require the certificate of every person they employ, and to hold their own.
• Confusing the official material’s $200 money order with the certificate’s price: that is the authorization charge the physician pays the Department.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico

  Salud

  www.salud.pr.gov

• Auxiliary Secretariat for Public Health Regulation (SARAFS), Health Department

  Salud

  www.salud.pr.gov