Is your practice pandemic ready?
Every year as the reminders for flu vaccination begin, those working in medical practices wonder what the flu season will bring this year. A few years back there was an influenza pandemic that swept through Australia. It was 2009 and we soon were all talking about Swine Flu and H1N1 influenza. As a practice manager, I was not really that aware of what it meant for our practice until it actually happened. The practice fortunately had a great team of doctors and nurses who swept in to action to ensure our clinical staff were well briefed in what they needed to do and that we had adequate supplies of PPE, while I acted quickly to ensure front desk staff had refresher training enabling them to deal with the waves of sick people coming to the practice, and we revised our usual protocols to manage increased infection control risks.
Not all practices have experienced staff who will know what to do and while we managed it on the run, it would be much easier to have a plan in place to know who will do what, when it does happen. The RACGP produced some good guides to help practices through this scenario, and accreditation standards now require that your practice has a business continuity plan to deal with things that could disrupt your service, including pandemics.
So would your practice know what to do? Are all your staff, including those at the front desk adequately trained in triage, hand hygiene, and other infection control processes that would be required during a pandemic? Would your practice have adequate supplies of PPE, surface cleaning products, to get through something like this that may go on for weeks? And what would happen if a number of your staff became sick too?
If you don't have a plan, I suggest you download the RACGP guides, work with your team to decide who your pandemic coordinator will be, get your plan down in writing and share it with your team. I have created this help sheet for staff as a quick guide to getting organised at the first warning of a pandemic. You are welcome to use it in your practice, or if you would like me to customise it further for you, please contact me via Aspire Medical Practice Management to get a customised PDF copy or to discuss your needs.
And with great plans in place, we can all hope for just a regular flu season and no pandemic this year, but at least we will be prepared for all eventualities!
