It rolls around every year without fail.
Once fall gets underway, healthcare employers and their teams must deal with infectious disease season. It used to be known simply as flu season, but the global COVID-19 pandemic changed that forever. The entire world learned the hard way that preventing and effectively treating contagious viruses goes way beyond the current flu bug.
Preventing the spread of flu, COVID-19, and other infectious agents within healthcare settings and among providers requires a dedicated, multi-faceted approach. Here are some guidelines to provide the best possible seasonal patient care and, at the same time, keep your workforce healthy and your facility running smoothly through fall and winter:
Promote and administer vaccines.
Make vaccines readily available to staff and patients. This applies to anyone over the age of six months. As verified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), vaccination is the most important measure you can take to prevent seasonal infection.
- For your employees and their family members, offer vaccines at no cost – and optimize convenience by offering vaccine clinics during all shifts. Require the signing of declination forms as needed to acknowledge applicable staff members have been educated on related risks and benefits.
Minimize exposure.
You can take multiple steps to keep exposure to seasonal infections to a minimum. They include:
- Train and educate your staff. Ensure that every employee receives job—and task-specific education and training on preventing and managing infectious agents.
- Educate patients and visitors. Use signage, email, text messages, and information on your website and patient portal to educate patients and visitors about signs and symptoms of illness, when to call their providers, how to reduce their chances of getting sick, and what to expect when visiting your facility at this time.
- Monitor visitor access and activity. Implement mechanisms and policies to promptly alert your staff of increased illness outbreaks in your local community. Stay in close communication with local and state health authorities.
- Practice environmental and engineering controls. These may include installing partitions in triage areas, curtains between patients in shared care areas, and/or updated air handling systems if necessary.
Manage ill workers.
If your workers develop symptoms of illness:
- Instruct them not to come to work, to stop any patient care activities, and to promptly notify their supervisors and infection control personnel before leaving work.
- Ensure that every staff member is aware of your sick leave policies. These policies should be flexible, non-punitive, and consistent with all public health guidelines.
- Use temporary workers as needed to fill critical patient care voids created by staff illness.
AlliedUP Co-Op is committed to supporting your hiring, staffing, and workforce wellness needs. Request talent easily here, or Contact us today for additional educational resources or customized solutions to fill your seasonal, temporary, or direct hire needs—whether it means keeping staffing levels optimal despite sick leave call-offs or achieving your long-term, ongoing talent management goals.
