CHG Healthcare Services implements campaign to lessen the spread of H1N1 among employees

With the height of seasonal flu season approaching and the pandemic of H1N1 in the headlines, CHG Healthcare Services has designed and mobilized a campaign to keep employees informed of the latest flu trends affecting their offices.

Featured benefits of CHG's H1N1 campaign include an enhanced paid time off policy; 24-hour telephone support from physicians; and dedicated company-wide status updates for all CHG offices.

"At the end of the day, we want our employees to know we care about their wellness and are doing everything we can as an organization to protect them during this flu season," said Ms. Nicole Thurman, director of benefits at CHG.

As a precursor to implementing the campaign, CHG created an H1N1 Preparedness Committee to examine the possibility of employees missing more work than usual due to the H1N1 flu, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and to determine possible solutions to both keep healthy employees informed and keep business running smoothly.

"CHG has implemented this campaign to lessen the spread of H1N1 to lower the amount of panic or fear experienced by our employees. It not only focuses on prevention and education, but provides an infrastructure for determining and then communicating the severity of the H1N1 virus to employees and our leadership team," said Ms. Nicole Thurman.

Some major components of CHG's H1N1 action plan include:

-- CHG developed severity level updates - green, orange, yellow and red - to indicate not just the percentage of staff who are absent due to illness, but the extent to which business operations are affected by the decreased staffing levels. Every week the company's six offices report on their severity level, based on both community closures and the percentage of people out of the office due to illness and/or illness-related reasons such as daycare or school closures. Each severity level has a predetermined course of action, which will move into action as the levels change. -- The company paid-time off (PTO) policy was enhanced for the flu season (October 1 through April 1) to encourage employees to stay home while they or their immediate family members are sick, providing reassurance to employees who might consider working while ill to avoid using up vacation time. -- CHG is also employing the use of its Teladoc resource, a telephonic physician consulting tool, to provide a frontline defense for employees. Physicians can prescribe medicine for employees who have been exposed to H1N1 to help treat the virus until employees can see a primary care physician.

In addition to those highlights, CHG took a personal approach with its employees, distributing tissue, hand sanitizer and disinfectant to more than 1,100 employee desks.

"The purpose of the H1N1 campaign at CHG is to ensure that we have a plan in place, regardless of severity," said Ms. Thurman.