We all know the H1N1 drill by now: Wash your hands, cough into your sleeve, wash your hands, stay home if you're sick, wash your hands, use hand sanitizers.
Oh, and be sure to wash your hands.
We've heard it before and we'll undoubtedly hear it again before the storm passes … and with good reason. And while I don't want to spend too much time on it now, there are a few new resources that may prove useful.
The first is a new article from the AICPA, which offers the following tips for flu-wary businesses:
- “Identify a pandemic coordinator and / or team with defined roles and responsibilities for preparedness and response planning.”
- “Determine the potential impact of a pandemic on company business financials using multiple possible scenarios that affect different business locations.”
- “Forecast and allow for employee absences during a pandemic, such as personal / family member illness, school and / or business closures and public transportation service interruptions.”
- “Evaluate the availability of and employee access to health care services during a pandemic and improve services as needed.”
- “Provide sufficient and accessible infection control supplies (e.g. hand sanitizer, hand soap, tissues and receptacles for their disposal) in all business locations.”
Next up is this flu planning checklist for businesses, courtesy of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you have the resources, this could be a useful step-by-step action plan.
Finally, if you haven't seen it already, check out Google Flu Trends, a fascinating project that “uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity” throughout the world. You can track the flu's spread state by state and country by country.
Stay well.
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And if you're not contagious, the MACPA's Mid-Maryland and Eastern Shore chapters will each be hosting a program titled “Disaster Planning,” a portion of which will be devoted to the flu. The Mid-Maryland Chapter's program will be held on Nov. 12 and the Eastern Shore Chapter's event will be on Dec. 10.