Highland Urges Employees to Vaccinate Against Flu
September 19, 2012
Highland Employee Flu Clinic 2011
Highland Hospital will be holding a free flu clinic for employees from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26 in the hospital cafeteria. Highland experts are stressing the importance of vaccination following a mild winter.
“The flu is unpredictable every year,” said Vivian Condello, MS, FNP-BC, Nurse Practitioner and Manager of Employee Health Services. “People should not be complacent just because they did not get sick last year.”
Australia is an example of how troublesome flu can be. The continent had a dry summer followed by a mild winter (June through August) but experienced an earlier-than-normal appearance of flu cases and double the number of reported cases compared with previous years. At its peak, there were 164 hospital admissions per week, with nine percent of hospitalized cases admitted directly to the ICU, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Australia Department of Health and Ageing.
Highland’s clinic will kick off the hospital’s influenza vaccination campaign. During last year’s clinic, more than 300 employees and providers were vaccinated in three hours. Employee Health Services will also take vaccinations straight to units and schedule additional clinics.
“Our goal is to protect our workers and our patients, as well as our workers’ families, and we do that by getting vaccinated,” Condello said.