Home Health & Hospice Week

Don’t forget employees’ kids when encouraging vaccinations.

Is your agency being laid low by the flu this winter? Try these strategies to prevent flu-related productivity problems.

Every year at least 200,000 Americans are likely hospitalized from influenza, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and as many as 36,000 people die due to flu complications. These tips help prevent the spread in your agency, and in your patients’ homes as well:

Tip 1: The flu is easily spread in close quarters like offices and patients’ homes. Cut down risk to your employees by encouraging everyone to wash their hands often and keeping their hands away from their eyes, nose, or mouth.

Tip 2: Elderly people and children are at the greatest risk for flu complications, but everyone will benefit from getting vaccinated. In addition to en-couraging vaccination for employees and patients, recommend inoculation of children in their households to provide stronger protection against the virus for adults.

Why? “Children have more influenza in their body when they get sick,” explains Dr. Kath-leen Neuzil, an immunization specialist at PATH, a public health advocacy group. This means they have more of the virus to spread around, especially when combined with children’s poor hygiene.

Tip 3: Despite highly publicized vaccine shortages in years past, the CDC has confirmed that there is enough of the flu vaccine to go around.

Keep in mind that chronic unnecessary stress can undermine the flu shot’s effectiveness. “Our studies showed that people who have lots of stress going on in their lives have poorer responses to the influenza vaccination,” says Dr. Vikki Burns of the University of Birmingham in England.

Tip 4: Your employees know when they’re getting sick, but if they’re like most people, they go to work anyway. However, public health experts urge everyone to just stay home. You are more likely to spread the virus during those first days. “By staying home, you can protect against inadvertently infecting others,” says Neuzil.