Bird Flu Pandemic Preparations

lakeway1 · February 2006

Any specific prepartions by municipal governments yet? I've been reading alot about preparations especially in light of Katrina and Rita. Looking for specific ideas.

dixied · February 2006

I am attending the Nebraska's Pandemic Flu Response Summit this Thursday. The governor sent an invitation to our local SHRM chapter and it was passed along to the members. It should prove to be interesting and hopefully informational.

atrimble · February 2006

I requested our City Health Department provide any information they may have, and they referred me to the State of Missouri, who, by my research, seems a little behind the times in developing a Plan as compared to several other states. Missouri has spring conferences scheduled with national representatives, but nothing solid in place yet. They've suggested that individual governmental entities partner up and develop a temporary business continuation plan until the State can get their act together. Good thing we're not Louisiana or Florida or...

I did find a set of decent checklists from the CDC website: [url]http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/checklists.html[/url] which might aid the development of a plan.

Our agency is also a member of the local COAD (Community Organizations Acting in Disaster), a formal, federally-recognized group of entities who get training for and who practice for community-wide emergency responses such as flood, epidemic, terrorist act, etc. and answer to SEMA/FEMA. That may be part of what the State was referring to when they suggested "partner up."

System · February 2006

It's not specific to municipal governments, but there is an HR Hero audio conference tomorrow on this topic:

[link:www.hrhero.com/audio/pandemic/index.shtml|Preparing for the Avian Flu Pandemic - What HR Must Do]

And of course, you can buy a CD of the event later if you miss the live audio conference.

(As if you haven't already gotten 20 HR Hero e-mails telling you about it. x:P )

justaskin · February 2006

Our organization did participate in the audio conference yesterday, and it was interesting but did not offer specific suggestions for issues we are trying to address. Has anyone developed policies or procedures for dealing with absent staff if a pandemic occurs in this country? We have done business continuity planning before, but none of the other risks we have planned for have included significant reduction of staff like we could experience in a pandemic. We are looking at state law relative to isolation and quarantine by health authorities and trying to determine the right balance between proactive communication with employees and creating undue fear. Would like to hear from anyone who might be farther along in this process. Thanks

fnb south · April 2006

I was just wondering if you ever found any additional information concerning developing policies and procedures?

lakeway1 · April 2006

Meeting planned with Mayor and City Manager next week. Also, making plans with our software company for additional payroll data disaster recovery. No other formal that pertain specifically to bird flu. We have a general emergency plan in place.

Paul in Cannon Beach · May 2006

SHRM's HR Magazine May 2006 cover reads: "Pandemic: How to prepare for the unthinkable".

I havent read it but this may be a good resource for anyone who is working on a response.

Bird Flu Pandemic Preparations

Comments