UICOMP has established a special H1N1 “swine” influenza preparedness team. We are fortunate that the UICOMP infectious disease specialists are the Infection Control Officers at Methodist and OSF.
Membership of the UICOMP committee is Dr. John Farrell (Infectious Disease Specialist, Infection Control Committee OSF-SFMC), Dr. Sara Rusch, Jim Burwitz, Deb Bigger, Wally Hammond, Pam Volk, and Pam Briggs.
Since this situation is very fluid and recommendations are dependent on local factors, we have decided that:
All UICOMP Healthcare workers at OSF affiliated clinics, at OSF-SFMC and at HIHAC will follow OSF infection control measures.
All UICOMP Healthcare workers at Methodist affiliated clinics and MMCI will follow Methodist infection control measures (UICOMP faculty member, Dr Dick McDonnell is on this Infection Control Committee).
In order to adjust to changing recommendations, we have arranged for recommendations to be disseminated via UICOMP onsite and offsite list serve.
All employees should be particularly careful to use proper hand-washing habits. Employees who are sick with influenza-like symptoms (fever, runny nose, sore throat, cough) should stay home. They should contact their physician to see if further evaluation is needed.
All UICOMP employees are encouraged to access http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu to get answers to their questions. Again, these recommendations are changing as our understanding of this disease changes so you can use this site to stay current.
Dr. Sara L. Rusch
Regional Dean
*FOR INFORMATION, UPDATES, AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, PLEASE VISIT:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Methodist Medical Center of Illinois
OSF Saint Francis Medical Center
UICOMP Updates (password required)
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