White Plains Hospital Center Issues Guidelines to Prevent Spread of "Swine Flu"

Sept. 24, 2009 - PRLog -- To help prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus (“swine flu”) and the regular seasonal flu, officials at White Plains Hospital Center, White Plains today stressed the importance of proper hand hygiene as a critically important precautionary measure that everyone should adopt.  In addition to making it a routine to wash hands often with soap and water, the Hospital recommends the use of alcohol-based sanitizers as a significant way to reduce the number of potential infection-spreading microorganisms on the skin.

Saungi McCalla, MSN, MPH, RN, CIC, White Plains Hospital Center’s Director of Infection Control, noted that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has long recommended the use of hand washing or the use of hand sanitizers as an effective way to fight germs. Two years ago the Hospital adopted the policy by distributing hand wipes on every patient meal tray—the first community hospital in Westchester do so—and mounted an aggressive campaign to encourage all visitors and hospital personnel to make use of hand sanitizers. “Given the fact that we are also facing a potentially more dangerous flu strain this season, proper hand hygiene is everyone’s responsibility to help keep infection from spreading in our community.”

Ms. McCalla also said that the Hospital had adopted the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services: 5 Things You Can Do to Help Prevent the Spread of the H1N1 and Seasonal Flu in the messages it is communicating to the community this flu season:

1. Make prevention the first line of defense. Everyone needs to make it a routine to wash their hands often with soap and water. Remind your family to cough or sneeze into their sleeves or into a tissue, not in their hands. These steps are easy, but they only work if every member of the family participates.

2. Make sure you and your entire family get vaccinated. Vaccines are the best means we have to make sure those families and communities are protected from flu. Vaccines for both H1N1 and seasonal flu will be available this fall. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration are working around the clock with vaccine manufacturers to make sure that flu vaccines are safe and effective. White Plains Hospital Center is  drawing up plans to vaccinate all its employees.

3. Stay home if you are sick.  White Plains Hospital Center is especially cautioning visitors to refrain from coming to the Hospital if they are sick and to stay home and avoid spreading the disease to their loved ones and others. That’s because H1N1 spreads rapidly, particularly among kids and young adults and is especially dangerous for pregnant women. Look for these symptoms: Similar to seasonal flu, with H1N1 you’ll get a fever, cough, sore throat, stuffy nose, achiness, headache, chills and fatigue. Sometimes H1N1 causes diarrhea and vomiting. Both H1N1 and seasonal flu can be severe and occasionally deadly.

4. Start planning now. Ask yourself these questions: If you work and your child becomes sick, have you made arrangements for child care? Have you talked with your employer about what to do in case you need to be out?

5. Go to the White Plains Hospital Center web site for the latest information on H1N1 and seasonal flu. The website, www.wphospital.org, is also a good source of information on a wide range of health topics including the 2009 flu season.  

“White Plains Hospital Center urges that everyone join in mitigating the effects of H1N1 and the seasonal flu by following these critical steps,” Ms. McCalla stated.

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White Plains Hospital Center (WPHC) is a 292-bed voluntary, not-for-profit health care organization with the primary mission of offering high quality, acute health care and preventive medical care to all people who live in, work in or visit Westchester County and its surrounding areas. Centers of Excellence include the Dickstein Cancer Treatment Center, The William & Sylvia Silberstein Neonatal & Maternity Center, The Ruth and Jerome A. Siegel Stroke Center and The Westchester Orthopedic Institute. The Hospital has the busiest Emergency Department in Westchester County, treating more than 45,000 patients a year. White Plains Hospital Center is a seven-time winner of the Consumer Choice Award, an honor given to the nation’s top hospitals by the National Research Corporation. WPHC is a member of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System and the Stellaris Health Network, Inc. For additional information, visit http://www.wphospital.org/.