The Global Center for Health Security (GCHS) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) has played an important risk-mitigation role for meat processing industries across Nebraska—and now those efforts have spread across the globe. By working in conjunction with the College of Public Health and Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, GCHS created the Meat Processing Facility Playbook. The Playbook provides recommendations for engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment to protect employees, the community, and business operations. Based on consultations with Nebraska meat processing facilities, the Playbook is a compilation of best practices for the industry—and it has now reached another country, Turkey.
Dr. Jocelyn Herstein, Program Coordinator for GCHS, received an email from a resident of Turkey who had reviewed the Playbook, and he wrote to thank her for its creation. The writer commented that he had found it helpful for industry professionals and believes it has the potential to save lives. He also mentioned his hopes to distribute it to his customers to assist their efforts to avoid COVID-19.
When asked about the significance of this email, Dr. Jocelyn Herstein commented, "I think it shows that our work is being shared not just at a national level, which we knew, but also at an international level." Dr. Herstein also explained how the American facilities best practices may apply to other countries, "Some of the factors that make meat processing facilities and workers particularly susceptible to COVID-19 seem to be pretty universal: close contact between workers on production lines, large numbers of people in one space pose challenges to physical distancing, in many cases, a diverse immigrant workforce that may have barriers to healthcare access and earn low pay, etc. The recommendations we put together in the Playbook seem to be largely applicable to international groups in this industry."
In addition to meat processing facilities, UNMC COVID-19 Playbooks have also been created for child development centers, higher education, and the court system. All of the playbooks have been created based on consultations with the respective industry and tailored to mitigate their specific risks. Each of the Playbooks can be downloaded from the GCHS landing page or under the COVID-19 section. To review or download a free copy of a Playbook, visit https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/.
UNMC COVID-19 Meat Processing Playbook Goes “Global”
