The following Pandemic Plan framework is based on the Business Pandemic Preparedness Checklist offered by the Industrial Accident Prevention Association and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care’s (MOHLTC) “Guide to Developing a Workplace Health Plan for Influenza Pandemic”
We have instituted a number of policies and procedures that are aimed at preventing outbreaks and minimizing the impact of a pandemic on our employees and our workflow.
Our Occupational Health and Safety Policy clearly lays out the framework for our sick time policy. Employees who display a certain set of symptoms are encouraged to report the illness to the Director of Pharmacy and remain home until they can produce a doctor’s note indicating they are well.
Our policy on hand hygiene describes the procedure for how an employee should clean their hands using an alcohol based hand rub. We have installed alcohol hand rub dispensers in every room in the facility as well as at the entrance of the pharmacy. We also have a designated Infection Control Officer to ensure that employees clean their hands each day. Employees must clean their hands with the alcohol hand rub every 30 minutes as per the Orientation Handbook.
Employees are trained in respiratory etiquette during orientation and during the annual general meeting. Proper respiratory etiquette is described in the policy and procedure for hand hygiene.
The Infection Control Policy specifies that each employee must obtain a flu shot annually and it must be documented in their employee profile.
Cleaning most surfaces in the pharmacy is the responsibility of the Infection Control Officer as per our Cleaning Policy. We also test random surfaces in the pharmacy using sampling with a cotton swab and agar plates to verify that the regular cleaning is effective as per our policy on Surface Cleaning and Disinfection Sampling ad Assessment. Our buffer room and anteroom have a specific cleaning checklist. A specific list of weekly cleaning activities for the non-sterile compounding room can be found in the Westmount manual
Staff members who are trained in non-sterile compounding are responsible for making sure this checklist and procedure are followed.
Training on Infection Control is covered during the annual general meeting and upon orientation to the facility.
All policies and procedures are made available on the MYHC Intranet. All decisions related to pandemics will be posted there as well.
Please see below for our “Chain of Command”, which provides lists of employees who have been cross-trained to perform multiple operations within MYHC and who can fill in for staff affected by a pandemic.