Employees sick with flu need to call out

indigo girl · Jun 13, 2009

Pandemic declaration prompts CDC huddle with businesses

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swineflu/news/jun1209business-br.html

Anthony Fiore, MD, MPH, a medical epidemiologist in the CDC's influenza division, said the novel flu cases and hospitalizations are hitting younger people and children the hardest. "This is much of the workforce, as well as their children," he said.
He warned that a vaccine against the new virus, if successfully developed, won't be available until October or later and probably won't be distributed through typical commercial channels. Fiore advised businesses to plan on using basic preventive measures as a fallback, such as encouraging employees to stay home when they're sick, cover their coughs, and wash their hands frequently.
Employees who have risk factors for flu complications, such as asthma, cardiac conditions, or pregnancy, should be advised to seek medical care quickly if they have flu symptoms, he said. Those who don't have risk factors and experience severe symptoms should also seek care.
Employers should review their leave, pay, and benefits policies to determine if any adjustments are needed to allow employees to stay home for 7 to 10 days if they are sick with the novel flu or need to stay home to care for a sick family member, she said.
Flexibility with policies will be crucial, Koonin said. For example, employers may not want to require a doctor's note when workers have been home sick, because clinics and emergency departments will likely be swamped, making it difficult for sick people to get notes in a timely manner.
During a question and answer period, representatives from several businesses said they need more guidance on severity to help them assess and revise their pandemic plans. The CDC officials said they expect the WHO to issue some severity guidance soon, but in the meanwhile business can use a severity scale, based on case-fatality ratio, that was included in the CDC's 2007 community mitigation guidance. They said the current severity level would be 2, roughly equivalent to the 1957 pandemic.
Some businesses also asked the CDC for clearer guidance on how long people with novel flu infections should stay home before returning to work. Fiore said the current guidance, issued out of an abundance of caution but without much scientific data, is 7 days or 24 hours after symptoms resolve, whichever is longer.
He said the CDC is actively examining its recommendation on how long to stay home and hopes to update its guidance within the next few weeks.

Girl Scout · Jun 13, 2009

I can't even imagine working as a CNA and needing at least 7 days of consecutive absence, without warning, pandemic or not. What if that 1 CNA became 4 or 5 CNAs? Your facility would be in trouble. But you couldn't bring them back to work. And those patients don't stop needing care.

oramar · Jun 17, 2009

This will be a total turn around for nursing offices that are used to harringing sick employees to come to work even though they are obviously sick with something that is contagious.

oramar · Jun 17, 2009

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12581592
It is interesting that this hospital spokeswoman is saying that CDC has mandated a 7 day leave policy for employees with flu.
Let's check that out. I just read something about businesses being asked to give employees that much time off to recuperate but there is nothing about mandating this that I could see...

I said something in one of my "will you work" post. The government needs to issue guidelines saying that anyone who comes down with H1N1 while working in health care will be covered by workers comp. It will be assumed that they got it at work and NO employer shall waste resources trying to wiggle out of their responsibilities to their employees. It is the only way 1. to keep people from fleeing in terror 2. to keep people from covering up illness because they can't afford to be off.

Girl Scout · Jun 17, 2009

It might take a minor miracle, since it seems that healthcare workers aren't even covered by wc in most places if they get back injuries on the job. You can use good body mechanics 99.9% of the time, but that .1% is the time that you are going to put your back out. And you can be careful about not getting the flu, but the .1% of the time you aren't 100%, you'll get it. At least, that'd be my luck anyway.

allnurses Guide · Jun 17, 2009

RNRN Call to Action

Swine Influenza Pandemic Position Statement

Partial list of recommendations:

* Ensure that RNs and MDs control their practice environment and are able to provide care in the exclusive interest of the patient particularly in an imminent pandemic environment.

* Acute care hospitals must immediately implement state, HHS and CDC guidelines on disaster preparedness and response including facility-based policies on disaster preparedness and response.

* Secure protection for health care personnel by providing personal protective equipment (PPE).

* Acute care hospitals must immediately staff-up, there shall be no violation of safe staffing ratios or any state work rules and no retaliation for sick calls or care of a family member suffering from swine flu.

* Health care providers, first responders, medically fragile and vulnerable populations must be given timely access to anti-viral medications, such as oseltamivir or zanamivir. ...

http://www.calnurses.org/swineflu/assets/pdf/rnrn_position_statement.pdf