Special Topics in Safety Management

4 Keys to H1N1 Flu Preparation

The CDC says that even if your community has not yet felt the effects of H1N1 influenza, you should plan for a flu outbreak this fall and winter, and be ready to implement strategies to protect your workforce while ensuring continuity of operations.

Here are four critical recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help you coordinate your pandemic plans for this fall and winter.

1. Work with State and Local Public Health Officials

Coordination with state and local health officials is strongly encouraged for all businesses so that timely and accurate information can guide appropriate responses in each location where their operations reside. Because the intensity of an outbreak may differ according to geographic location, local public health officials will be issuing guidance specific to their communities. Also, businesses could work with public health and community leaders to explore ways of improving accessibility of vaccinations for the workforce and in the community.

2. Be Prepared to Step Up Efforts

If severity increases, public health officials may recommend a variety of methods for increasing the physical distance between people (called social distancing) to reduce the spread of disease, such as school dismissal, child- care program closure, canceling large community gatherings, canceling large business meetings, spacing workers farther apart in the workplace, canceling nonessential travel, and recommending work-from-home strategies for workers who can conduct their business remotely.


The threat of a flu pandemic can have a devastating impact on your company and your employees. Pandemic awareness training is essential, and BLR’s new Pandemic Flu: How to Prevent and Respond PowerPoint® presentation allows you to conduct a self-paced audio training session that gives workers critical guidance without your having to spend hours on research, preparation, or presentation. Get the details.


3. Keep Sick Workers Home

One of the best ways to reduce the spread of influenza is to keep sick people away from well people. Unfortunately, this fall and winter it may not be possible to quickly determine if workers who are ill have H1N1, seasonal flu, or any number of other different conditions based on their symptoms alone. Local and state health department surveillance information can be helpful to know when influenza is circulating in the community, although the availability, timeliness, and amount of local information may vary substantially from community to community.

Workers who have symptoms of flu-like illness should stay home and not come to work until at least 24 hours after their fever has passed. Regardless of the size of your business or the function or services that you provide, you should plan now to allow and encourage sick workers to stay home without fear of losing their jobs. CDC recommends this strategy for all levels of severity. You should plan now for how you will operate if your workplace experiences significant absenteeism.

But you also have to realize that some workers with the flu, including those with H1N1, may not have the telltale fever. Therefore, you have to prepare for the fact that it may not be possible to exclude everyone who is sick with flu from the workplace. Some spread of infection is almost inevitable.

4. Be Prepared for Schools Dismissals and Closures

In some communities, schools may dismiss students and childcare programs may close, particularly if the severity increases. Officials will make these decisions to protect public health, but they will affect your business’s functioning, especially affecting absenteeism. Plan now to determine how you will operate if absenteeism spikes from increases in sick workers, those who stay home to care for ill family members, and those who must stay home to watch their children if dismissed from school. Be prepared to institute flexible workplace and leave policies for these workers.


BLR’s Pandemic Flu: How to Prevent and Respond teaches employees how to prevent the spread of infection and how to deal with pandemic flu at work and at home. Find out more.


Act Now

The threat of a flu pandemic can have a devastating impact on our world, our nation, your company, and your employees. Employees must know what to expect and how to prepare for a pandemic to prevent the spread of infection. Panic will be less if they know what to do to protect themselves, their co-workers, and their families in the event of a pandemic.

That makes  pandemic flu awareness training essential. BLR’s new Audio Click ’n Train PowerPoint® presentation, Pandemic Flu: How to Prevent and Respond, allows you to conduct a training session giving critical guidance without spending hours on research and preparation. With the audio you even have what amounts to a “guest speaker.”

Throughout the session, interactive activities involve employees and make certain that they understand how they can help protect themselves from careless risk of infection. It reinforces good hygiene and simple precautions.

Pandemic Flu: How to Prevent and Respond will give you confidence that you’ve taken effective steps to make employees aware of pandemic risks, and have implemented strategies for responding effectively to the threat.

Get more information or order.

 

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