" The flu season is now in full swing and now almost all 50 states reporting widespread influenza activity by the CDC. Our post acute and long term care facilities will soon, if not already, be consumed with instituting isolation precautions, closing units, limiting visitation and deciding who to treat for the flu. There are also a myriad of other policies and procedures that facilities implement to try to prevent outbreak from occurring.

It is also this time of year that we get to see the fruits of all the labor that we put into vaccinating our patients, residents and staff and educating them on the importance of getting vaccinated. We see firsthand how effective the vaccine is against the most common and deadly strains of the virus and our hopes to obtain a high level of prevention for our patients.

Unfortunately, as it is this year, there is much disappointment when the seasonal vaccine doesn’t live up to its name in effectiveness. Either it is because of an unexpected strain or a mutation has occurred that makes the effectiveness of the vaccine lower than expected. It is often too late in the season to have another vaccine made so we are left with hoping for the best and treating with antivirals as aggressively as possible.

In my opinion I don’t see any of these issues as disappointing or discouraging at all. Even though this year’s flu is turning out to be a difficult one, it lends itself to several opportunities to improve the quality of care in post acute and long term care.

First of all, we should not be consumed with the effectiveness of the flu shot and whether or not it was worth our efforts to vaccinate our patients, residents and staff. Regardless of how effective the vaccine seems, it still reduces morbidity and mortality.



The seasonal vaccine addresses three to four strains depending on the type of vaccine you get and even to decrease the flu’s impact on our post acute and long term care communities by even 1% is worth it. We need to continue to be advocates for the flu vaccine and encourage everyone to play an active role in supporting its use.

Secondly, it is a great time to review your facility's policies and procedures regarding influenza. The CDC has great resources online that I would highly recommend reviewing with your facility's team. Specifically, the Interim Guidance for Influenza Outbreak Management in Long Term Care Facilities https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/infectioncontrol/ltc-facility-guidance.htm is one of the best comprehensive resources that should be used to guide policy and procedure changes in your facilities. The CDC website ( www.cdc.gov) in general is also a great tool to keep up with the latest monitoring and surveillance throughout the country.

Finally, each facility needs to make sure that providers and staff are kept up to date on the “flu status” of their facility. This requires active and ideally daily involvement from the facility's medical director and onsite providers. Standards and expectations need to be clearly communicated across the board and having strong leadership in this area is one of the most important things you can do for an effective and productive influenza management plan.

If you are struggling to find this type of leadership in your facility, feel free to contact us directly. We would be happy to help in any way possible." Dr. Toby Smith