1.2 Pandemic BC Execution Stage 1: Reduction [Part 2]

Diag_WHO Framework_6r_Reduce 1.8 Inculcate Personal Hygiene

It is necessary, to begin with, basic hygiene practices when approaching this threat. Some of the basic precautions are:

Avoid droppings of infected birds and poultry.
Avoid touching live birds or poultry or come into contact with their droppings.
Wash hands thoroughly with liquid soap and water if you been in contact with live birds or poultry.
Cook poultry and eggs thoroughly before eating.
Consult a doctor and put on a mask to avoid spreading the disease, if you have flu symptoms.
Maintain a good immune system through a balanced diet, regular exercise, adequate rest, reduced stress, and no smoking.
Avoid crowded places with poor ventilation.
Consult your doctor regarding your travel history if you were to develop a fever or respiratory symptoms after returning from an infected country.

1.9 Communication

One of the key strategies for managing an infectious outbreak is to be able to communicate effectively. Try to develop an understanding of the impending Infectious Disease and be as detailed as possible. With that understanding and a monitoring mechanism in place, those responsible for overseeing an organisation’s response must come up with fair and practical policies for a broad range of issues. Moreover, it is crucial to communicate these to the staff and other parties openly. Without a doubt, the correct way is to be as transparent as possible and to give sufficient assurance to the professionalism of the staff members to understand why these policies are important to the business.

Setup internal and external communication protocols.
Setup and prepare a domain intranet website for next
Provide infectious disease information to staff on regular basis.
Build confidence within the organisation to place reliance on internal dissemination and not from unreliable and unconfirmed sources.
Educate top down starting from executive management to the entire organisation.

This approach brings out a very positive response from staff and is necessary for developing a "can do" attitude. Openness is an act of confidence and leadership, not just management. The two ‘disciplines’ often led to confusion. Those organisations that choose to prevaricate and obfuscate in their communication consistently found that confusion and fear were the results. The main concern in some organisations is that they might either be interfering with privacy issues or disclosing too much about their lack of preparedness. The buy-in from staff helps to overcome both matters.

The means of communication to employees will vary amongst organisations, but for most, communication can be via the organisation’s intranet. Working closely with the decision-making body, those responsible for the management of the intranet can easily give updates to a wider readership. A question that begs to be raised in this type of arrangement is whether or not the resiliency of the organisation’s intranet has been reviewed. It is a crucial communication tool regionally and locally and should, therefore, be protected by a critical system.

A key focus is to provide all staff members with timely information on the current situation and what the organisational response will be.

Recently, the Ebola crisis in the United States had highlighted the following crisis communication lessons:

Do not over-reassure.
Acknowledge uncertainty.
Do not over-diagnose or over-plan for panic.
Tolerate early overreactions.
Do not ridicule the public's emotions

Education

There is a need to create awareness and educate staff on the Infectious Disease. The government plays a significant role in educating the public on the concerns and preventive measures of Infectious Disease itself. Meanwhile, an organisation should:

Seek Professional Medical Advice.
Engage an external medical practitioner or doctor to brief the staff, and to answer any questions for them.
Emphasise that the primary objective is to allay the fears of the staff members.
Disseminate Information.
Provide regular email broadcasts and portals to disseminate information daily to employees to allay their concerns and address rumours.
Information is collated daily, typically, in the morning.
Every department is to report on the amount of sick staff and suspected Infectious Disease cases.
Communicate with major stakeholders, suppliers and customers.
Educate all employees on:
Preventive measures.
Social responsibilities.
Personal cleanliness.
Personal and environmental hygienic practices.
Cater for:
Extra cleaning of common areas.
Issue masks, gloves, and thermometers.

Awareness and Updates

These are some of the typical content of in-house awareness and training for staff. When there is a change in content, employees will need to be aware of the new updated information.

Create an awareness of the precautions.
Highlight the effects of the infectious disease.
Reiterate the symptoms for affected infected victims.
Communicate within the organisation.
Update of infectious disease status.
Provide hygiene instructions.
Be continuously vigilant.

Posters and Leaflets

The leaflet should describe Infectious Disease, the risk of it occurring in a particular country and how it is different from the ‘ordinary’ flu we get every winter. Also, what the country is doing to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic or infectious diseases.

National Level Infectious Disease Guidebook

The national government is making an effort to issue its handbook. An example by the Singapore government is “Business Continuity Guide: Contingency Planning for Infectious Disease Pandemics”.

1.10 Review and Refine Policies

There is an urgent need to define, evaluate and refine some of the existing policies and protocols. The organisation must start to look into some of these areas. Each of the policies is further supported by a list of sample questions to guide the users as part of their consideration:

Leave
Travel
Organisation off-site activities.
Training and meetings.
Reporting of suspected and confirmed cases.
Dress codes policy.
Management of ‘split-site’ moves.
Use of remote means of working.
The ordering, authorization and distribution of health and safety implements.
Cleaning and facilities management.
Use of a single cost centre.
Data centre
Managing alternative delivery channels.
Payment to permanent and part-time staff members.

These policies and protocols are only the tips of the iceberg when it comes to managing the Infectious Disease outbreak. There are significantly more day-to-day issues that must be addressed. Some of them include the staff’s morale, increased regulatory liaison, more stressful working conditions, the role of the organisation in the community’s disaster response and counselling where necessary.

Lessons learned from SARS should be included in the BC planning documentation, training, and procedures. With the increasing emphasis being placed on scenario-based exercises these days, it would surely be a worthwhile option to consider. These exercises, if done properly, are certain to challenge those presented with the task of maintaining business as usual.

1.11 Work Steps: Reduction

Local Government

Provide information on local pandemic planning according to the WHO pandemic framework.
Develop and devise a plan to reduce the health, social and economic impact of a pandemic.
Consult with and use input from all government ministries and agencies.
Promote inter-ministry coordination.
Prepare to implement national response action plans.
Educate general public on pandemic preparation.
Provide community communication and notification.
Issue pandemic planning policies and guidelines.
Make available Infectious Disease anti-virus drug and other preventive equipment for early response.
Track availability and location of the vaccine.
Increase research and healthcare capacity.
Embark on an influenza vaccination campaign.
Estimate pandemic scale through risk analysis and modelling.
Increase cooperation with international organisations.
Enhance surveillance and tracking of animals intended for human consumption.
Develop early event detection surveillance.
Track laboratory specimen.
Setup contacts tracing/quarantine management.
Establish site facilities such as vaccination sites, Infectious Disease clinics, alternative care sites, and group quarantine locations.
Setup community outbreak response environment.
Manage mass casualty incident.

1.12 Business

Operational and Continuity of Business

Study national and local government infectious disease preparedness plans.
Monitor recommendations of health authorities.
Develop a BC plan (if it is not available).
Develop mitigation strategies for critical business functions.
Assemble a crisis management structure to cater for infectious disease (if not available).
Plan and provide staffing for the incident management structure (a composite team comprising of members from the various BC teams).
Review and incorporate best practices from recognised agencies and sources.
Provide accommodation such as portable beds for people to rest in between shifts if transport back home is disrupted.
Review and update existing BC or response plans.
Develop policies on adaptations or changes to operations in the event of a disease outbreak.
Identify essential and alternative services including contractors, facilities/plants, and other production inputs.
Develop online offering of services.
Provide dispersal plan for individual staff is going to their pre-planned location.
Assess core personnel and skill requirement needs, and ensure essential positions are backed-up by an alternative staff member.
Identify tasks for which staff could be cross-trained and those who need to be trained.
Plan changes to shift patterns e.g. moving from 2 to 3 shifts per day.
Purchase items with a longer lead-time or more likely to be in short supply during a disease outbreak.
Identify methods to increase “social distancing” in the workplace, reduce movement.
Enable staff to work from the home e.g. purchase of laptops/PCs, implementation of extra dial-ins / VPN.
Develop possible scenarios that could affect your
Provide training on the plan before the test.
Start smaller scope exercise with a similar scenario.
Focus closely at incident escalation and communication between the BC teams.
Implement Infectious Disease routine leave, sick leave and travel policies.
Review and implement Infectious Disease related security issues.
Prepare to implement work from home protocols.
Plan and prepare the organisation to detect and manage suspected Infectious Disease cases in the office.
Identify and prepare for extra cleaning of common areas.
Implement visitor policy.
Make all necessary amendments and updates to the plans before starting the simulation.
Exercise the plans regularly

Personnel, Health, and Safety

Protecting staff members should be one of the key priority during a potential or impending outbreak.

Prepare to handle up to 50% staff absences for periods of 2 to 3 weeks at the height of an outbreak, and lower levels of staff absences for a few weeks on either side of the outbreak.
Update and maintain staff members and skill inventory databases.
Review insurance coverage for infected cases.
Identify medical professionals to provide advisory and screening support.
Designate specific staff members to monitor the health records in each business unit.
Arrange for temperature screening of employees and visitors and prepare declaration forms for them.
Prepare Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) issuance guidelines and policies.
Seek approval for emergency procurement of PPE items.
Purchase additional supplies e.g. hygiene and PPE items.
Make available seasonal flu vaccination for staff and their family members.
Consider HR policies to encourage the sick to self-quarantine and stay at home.
Identify ways to minimise illness amongst staff and customers.
Understand work responsibilities and rights such as refusal of unsafe work.
- Communication
Develop crisis communications plans.
Think of how essential messages (e.g. basic hygiene) can be communicated to staff.
Identify needs for personal protective equipment and cleaning equipment and check air conditioning.
Rehearse mitigation measures e.g. quarantine of offices and hygiene measures

IC_TIPS The activation of each stage/phase by the WHO does not necessarily require the same pandemic activation phase at the country level. It will be similar only if you are operating in a country that is mentioned by the WHO.