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Humana convoca un equipo de planificación contra enfermedades pandémicas

Humana has convened a pandemic planning team to address pandemic preparedness and communication.

Like many organizations, Humana is taking steps to prepare for a potential pandemic. The current attention to pandemic disease has arisen from the spread among birds of the avian flu virus H5N1.

As of October 2006, avian flu had been confirmed in 252 human cases worldwide. The avian flu virus H5N1 had not been found to be contagious between humans. However, if the virus should change to become as contagious as normal influenza, it will present a pandemic threat, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Humana’s actions
Several subteams have begun work, with the goal of identifying:

How do we define and identify a pandemic?
What are the triggers that tell us a pandemic situation is occurring?
What indicators of a pandemic should we be watching for?

“As we begin, we’re taking into account information from materials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and local health departments,” said Kristen Donovan, Humana’s director of Policy and Productivity. “At the same time, we’re updating Humana’s business continuity plans and we’re considering how we will build pandemic preparedness into those plans.”

Donovan was responsible for leading the group last summer. Since that time, Jim Donohue has come on board with Humana to oversee business continuity planning efforts as a program manager in the Strategic Consultancy. Donohue will be leading the subgroup in defining Humana’s policy.

Humana will continue to communicate pandemic preparation efforts. Meanwhile, the pandemic planning team reminds practices to conduct their own preparations for a potential pandemic (see box below).

Basic Pandemic Precautions

Name a contact within the practice who will oversee planning.
Stay informed by tracking potential flu outbreaks at relevant Web sites:
• Department of Health & Human Services: www.pandemicflu.gov/ (click on the State & Local Planning tab to access information about your state’s planning efforts)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/
• World Health Organization: www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/
Create a system to track flu-like illness among patients and to report this information to the pandemic coordinator.
Develop a plan to triage patients during a pandemic situation, including backup plans, if significant numbers of health care workers are ill.
Implement and test a sick-leave policy and a system for evaluating employees’ symptoms before they report to work.
Offer influenza vaccine to employees.
Maintain supplies (sanitizers, masks, gloves, etc.) to minimize the spread of disease among employees and between staff and patients.
Stockpile at least a week’s worth of resources if a pandemic reaches the United States.