Healthcare facilities urged to review influenza prevention strategies as flu season begins; experts recommend early preparation, hand hygiene protocols through May 2024

As influenza season, commonly referred to as “flu season,” is upon us, now is a great time for infection preventionists to review their healthcare facility’s preparedness plan. Flu season typically begins in October and can last until May. Since flu viruses are highly contagious, it’s essential for healthcare facilities to have an action plan in place with effective products, procedures and educational materials to decrease the spread to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) from occurring.

Tips to Tackle the Flu Season This Year

Regardless of strain, being proactive can help minimize the spread of the flu virus. To help prevent infections from spreading across your healthcare facility, consider the following tips:

• Prepare As Soon As Possible: The flu is a community-based infection and can spread rapidly, so it’s best not to wait until it arrives to start prevention tactics. Review your plan and check inventory to ensure you’re properly stocked with efficacious handwash, hand sanitizer, cleaning products and personal protection equipment (PPE) to help stop the spread of the virus. Review cleaning product labels, check expiration dates, and store enough products to maintain a robust, frequent cleaning schedule. Ensure disinfectants are proven to kill viruses, including influenza, norovirus and SARS-CoV-2. In addition, regularly monitor flu activity in your local area. 
• Enforce Hand Hygiene Compliance: Hand hygiene is a first line of defense to help stop the spread of the flu, especially in healthcare environments. Place signage to remind patients, visitors and staff how to correctly wash hands in all handwashing areas. Make sure to place easily accessible handwash and sanitizer dispensers containing effective products throughout the facility. Since frequent handwashing and sanitizing is required for healthcare professionals, look for products that value both efficacy and the user experience. Consider foam formats with built-in moisturizers to help protect the skin from dryness. To hold staff accountable and improve compliance, consider implementing an electronic system that automates the compliance tracking process to provide actionable insights so staff can make informed decisions. 
• Encourage Personal Hygiene Precautions: Beyond frequent and proper handwashing techniques, remind building occupants to cover sneezes and coughs with their sleeves or elbow and throw away used tissues. Encourage people to avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth as well. This can be done regularly during staff meetings and with educational posters placed throughout the facility for visitors. The CDC also recommends wearing a mask as an additional prevention strategy. Other personal precautions to consider include avoiding crowded spaces and shaking hands when possible.  
• Increase Cleaning Frequency: If flu activity ramps up in your area or an outbreak does occur in the facility, increase daytime cleaning frequency. The flu virus can live on some surfaces for 48 hours, so tackling common touchpoints more often with higher cleaning frequency can help reduce HAIs. Review cleaning procedures with environmental services (EVS) staff and ensure they understand application instructions for every product used. Kill claims vary, and most products require a specific dwell time to kill influenza.
• Require staff and visitors to stay home when sick: Since the flu is highly contagious, require staff to stay home when sick and place signage encouraging visitors to do the same. Prior to flu season, ensure the sick policy is up-to-date and communicate it to all employees. The CDC recommends that sick individuals stay home for at least 24 hours. They should also stay home until symptoms get better and they have been fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medication.[1]

The flu can range from mild to severe depending on the individual, so being proactive before flu season can help protect the health of all patients, visitors and staff. While the flu season can feel overwhelming for infection preventionists and EVS staff, having a solid plan, effective products, educational resources and detailed procedures in place can ease the burden and reduce the risk of an outbreak.