Medical center making plans for potential bird flu pandemic

On the weekend before Halloween, a city-wide exercise, Operation Triple Play, will test the Omaha community’s response to a mass disaster.

The exercise takes place Friday and Saturday and also will involve UNMC, The Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC Physicians.

The exercise, as well as the events of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, serve as a reminder of the importance of planning for events that affect the health, safety and economy of communities.

With talk of H5N1 influenza – also known as avian, or “bird flu,” the need for planning is critical not only for institutions, but also for employees and their families. The bird flu poses a monumental challenge to the health care system and communities. Health officials worldwide are concerned it could turn into a pandemic flu that could kill millions of people worldwide.

For more than nine months, teams have been planning for a potential pandemic flu, asking “What if?” The scope of planning is enormous for the Campus Continuity Planning for Bio-preparedness. UNMC, UNMC Physicians, The Nebraska Medical Center, with participation by UNO (University of Nebraska at Omaha), have been putting together plans for a potential pandemic flu event.

Leading the charge for preparedness at UNMC and the hospital, respectively, are Don Leuenberger, UNMC vice chancellor for business and finance, and Cindy Owen, vice president of corporate affairs, The Nebraska Medical Center. They are co-chairing a team to ensure a common plan.

“The public entrusts their health to us and expect us to be ready for a disaster of this magnitude that few of us have ever experienced,” Leuenberger said. “We have been meeting for the last nine months attempting to prepare to respond to any serious natural or man-made disaster.”

“There are several aspects to this, one of which is awareness on the part of UNMC faculty and staff about their personal preparedness in the event of pandemic flu or some other very serious biological event. We are the leaders and we’re responding, not only to our employees, but also to the public, that look to us because we are the academic health science center,” he said. “Because of the medical center’s mission and because of our expertise, it makes us a focal point for any medical response in the community and in the state.”

Each week, representatives from the major areas meet on campus, including information technology services, human resources, security, research, finance and business services, public affairs, infection control and facilities and infrastructure.

A myriad of issues are discussed, some of which include: essential employees, compensation issues; what academic, clinical and hospital services will be suspended during a flu pandemic; quarantine; what buildings will be shutdown; staff labor pools; where patients would be housed if hospital beds are filled; and infection control in the workplace. The list goes on and on.

Officials said a pandemic could curtail work and personal activities anywhere from 10 days to several months depending on how severe an outbreak.

Owen said the focus of the hospital’s planning efforts is preserving the life and safety of its staff members and students, as well as sustaining its mission to provide health care for the community.

“Hospitals and health care professionals are part of the first responders that help to keep our community safe in any natural or manmade disaster,” Owen said. “It’s our responsibility to be prepared for such events even though we’re hoping they never happen.

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons from the Katrina events of the last year, but that was on a regional scale. In planning for this, we’re tying to imagine what a catastrophe would look like that was of the same magnitude but transitioned across the country. The federal and state government expects hospitals and communities and individuals to be able to self sustain for 7-10 days in the beginning of a disaster.”

Leuenberger said UNMC and the hospital’s involvement in biosecurity, both at the state and national level, and in the Omaha community, such as in the Omaha Metropolitan Medical Response System (OMMRS), has helped in planning for a pandemic.

“We’re focused on pandemic events under the supposition that if we can respond to those adequately, we also can respond to tornadoes, floods, other natural events. Our goal is to ensure that as a body, we have done the necessary preparation to ensure that we can sustain medical services, identify essential personnel and appropriate security to make an effective response in the event that something should occur,” Leuenberger said.

“On a parallel track, we’ve been much involved with the governor’s office, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Nebraska Health and Human Services System, Douglas County Health Department, the Omaha Metropolitan Medical Response System (OMMRS) the CDC, and the military. We’re planning together and lending our expertise and capabilities to response planning,” he said

Owen said one of the first steps in preparing the medical center community is through personal health and wellness, receiving influenza vaccine for seasonal flu and following good hand washing and personal hygiene techniques to prevent the transmission of disease.

John Russell, director of Human Resources at UNMC, said one of the first priorities for his department is to establish a system of communication with employees.

He said effective communication systems are being identified to help prepare employees and their families in the event something does occur, and what systems will be used during an event to inform employees what is expected of them, what are the circumstances are at work, whether they’re supposed to come in or not, Russell said.

Deb Tomek, vice president of human resources at The Nebraska Medical Center, said efforts there focus on identifying essential personnel, employee and family communications, and health management resources.

“Much work will be done to identify specific policies that would apply if we were to encounter a pandemic situation,” she said.

Russell said UNMC also is identifying essential personnel and backup personnel.

“A position’s essentiality will change over time. It depends on the circumstances of the situation,” he said “The spreadsheet we’ve developed assesses whether a position is essential in the case of various situations such as a snow storm, a pandemic, a terrorist event. Different circumstances mean different positions are essential.

“We’re also working on what will be our policy regarding required attendance, pay, pay continuation, use of vacation, and leave time and under what circumstances those policies need to be changed or be reviewed so we can be fair to all our employees. We’re looking at the whole body of policies that would be instituted if an event is declared.”

Russell echoed others’ comment about personal preparedness.

“The best way we can prepare our employees to deal with a pandemic is to be prepared at home so they’re the best equipped and prepared to deal with this that they can be,” he said.

Rick Boldt, project manager of UNMC business continuity, said his unit recently held an educational forum for 160 employees.

“We kind of cracked the egg from the standpoint of informing our employees about being prepared both on and off work,” Boldt said. “It’s just the beginning of trying to educate everyone.”