Swine Flu and the Medical Practice

With a possible wide spread swine flu outbreak, what is a medical practice to do? Healthcare workers face special problems. In most cases we can ask sick people not to come to the office, unfortunately this is not the same for the medical practice. It is our job to help and see these sick patients. However, there are some things that can be done.

Consider some basic review:

• Review CDC recommendations http://www.cdc.gov/flu/workplace/
• Discuss staff sick leave policy and update if necessary
• Review signs and symptoms of flu with staff-has your patient been to Mexico or been around others that have recently?
• What is your emergency plan in a crisis?
• If you have a possible case of the swine flu:What is your protocol for notifying authorities? Review and update as needed.
• Sanitation methods in your practice to reduce spread of disease.

Discuss daily routine of cleaning rooms. Are the rooms being wiped down daily already? Some things to consider when cleaning include how often and how the rooms are being cleaned. Do you clean the door handles? Door handles are one of the worst surfaces, think about it. Your patient just sneezed and touched the handle and then you touched it when you left the room. What did you touch next?Do you clean the waiting room? How often? If you have a sick patient that is being seen with flu-like symptoms, do you have a separate place to put them that will reduce other patient’s exposure?


Does your staff practice good handwashing techniques? Do you encourage them to get immunized, eat right, get plenty of sleep and practice other prevention methods of getting sick? How will you handle it if several of your staff becomes sick with the flu? Do they come to work sick and expose more patients or do you encourage them to stay home when sick. How do you handle it if several become sick at the same time?


The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has some great information for both the practice and for the patient on their website at
http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/clinical/disasterprep/pandemicflu.html
Swine flu: http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/clinical/disasterprep/swine-flu.html
For the practice they even have business and clinical check-lists for preparing the practice.


For your patients, do you have handouts on the flu and are they current? Many patients may turn to you for additional information. If you do not have current information to offer, consider the CDC information, the AAFP handouts or your own speciality.

There are many other available resources.These are just a few of the possible questions to ask yourself. How and what you will do depends upon your practice, but with the new outbreak take this time to re-evaluate how you could handle the flu in your practice.