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Pandemic flu planning lessons learned from H1N1
Pandemic flu planning lessons learned from last year's H1N1 scare are discussed, and a pandemic planning checklist is provided in this expert response.
What pandemic flu planning lessons can be learned from last year's H1N1 scare?
In reality, last year's "pandemic" was a non-starter. As such,
pandemic planning is a topic that rarely gets any play these days. However, now that flu season is approaching, it may poke its head out for another go, but I haven't heard any media rumblings about a pandemic "event" in 2010 or 2011.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not issued any warnings or alerts. Having said that, here are some thoughts:
- When creating your pandemic plan, get informed of your supply chain, who the players are, where they are located and what alternative sources are available.
- Invest in cross-training of staff to ensure that important functions are not owned exclusively by one person.
- Be sure that operations manuals and emergency recovery plans are all documented and easily understandable by non-technical persons.
- Ensure that critical systems and operations can be managed remotely, in case people have to work from home.
- Become an advocate for succession planning, all the way to the top of the firm.
- Make sure that all employee contact and personal information (HR files) is current.
- Keep supplies of face masks and other preventive items in supply at all corporate locations.
- Arrange for flu shots at the office and encourage staff to get them.
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