“What if there’s a flu pandemic … how will my organization function during such a time? What can we do to protect our employees’ health?”

Undoubtedly, you have been pondering these questions as you read or watch news coverage of the potential for a devastating flu pandemic.

Facts about flu pandemic

A flu pandemic is a global outbreak that occurs when a new influenza A virus causes serious human illness and spreads easily from person to person. Pandemics are different from seasonal outbreaks or “epidemics” of influenza. Seasonal outbreaks are caused by subtypes of influenza viruses that already circulate among people, whereas pandemic outbreaks are caused by new subtypes, by subtypes that have never circulated among people, or by subtypes that have not circulated among people for a long time.

If it happens, a pandemic will last much longer than most public health emergencies and may include “waves” of influenza activity separated by months. Past influenza pandemics have led to high levels of illness, death, social disruption and economic loss.

The need for a business continuity plan

Because of the potentially significant economic burden in health-care related costs and lost productivity, organizations should have a workplace management and business continuity plan that: 

• supports an employee wellness strategy through employee education and prevention awareness initiatives
• ensures the readiness and deployment of organizational intervention strategies to manage the impact of an outbreak on workforce/workplace issues
• minimizes any service disruption to customers

Experts estimate that influenza epidemics cost the U.S. economy $71 billion to $167 billion per year. In the event of a pandemic, these figures could be significantly higher.

“As many organizations have done in preparing disaster recovery plans following the events of September 11 and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, there is value in creating a business continuity plan for a potential flu pandemic,” says Rich Paul, vice president of ValueOptions’ Health & Performance Solutions. Organizations that take the time now to conduct such planning will have a stronger infrastructure in place if and when it is needed.”

Planning assistance

ValueOptions can help your organization develop a business continuity plan that includes business practices to promote the health and wellness of the workforce and an employee education campaign to help prevent the spread of the flu. You’ll also find information on the Achieve Solutions Web site regarding flu prevention and planning, to support your organization as well as individual employees.

In the event of a flu pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges that businesses will play a critical role in protecting the health and safety of their employees. As a result, the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the CDC, has developed a business planning checklist for employers. This tool and other helpful resources can be found at www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic.

ValueOptions’ own business continuity plans

ValueOptions recognizes the importance of maintaining our own plans for business continuity, due to the sensitive nature of the services we provide and our responsibility to help customers meet the health and wellness needs of their employees. For these reasons, we have developed a business continuity plan specific to a possible flu pandemic, and maintain and update business continuity and disaster recovery plans that include corporate data center and telephone service recovery for all ValueOptions call centers. These plans are tested, and revised as necessary, on a regular basis.