Public Health Practices

The University of Chicago needed to act quickly in late April 2009 when it discovered a Medical Center staff member was diagnosed with H1N1 as cases of the virus were appearing in California and Mexico. Lacking complete knowledge about the scope of the outbreak and the morbidity and mortality rate, Student Care Center (SCC) director Dr.

The 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu outbreak forced the University of Chicago to make immediate housing plans after the flu virus was first identified in California and Mexico. So, when H1N1 hit in 2009, two things happened that influenced their response strategy immediately, said Dr. Kristine Bordenave, director of the Student Care Center (SCC): One, the university had one of the first H1N1 infections in the nation, a hospital staff member; and two, the timing of the academic year.

Purdue University in Indiana created facility and floor plans for on-campus vaccination PODs during H1N1.

During two days at the beginning of the H1N1 outbreak in fall 2009, members of the Purdue Chapter of the American Red Cross, along with other student volunteers, distributed brief informational materials on H1N1 to students while riding CityBus vehicles on routes serving the campus. The students also gave passengers four ounce bottles of waterless hand sanitizer.

Per the National Incident Management System (NIMS), Department Operations Centers (DOC) are established and activated by individual departments to coordinate and control actions specific to that department during an emergency event. A DOC is a physical facility or location similar to the campus Emergency Operations Center (EOC). However, the purpose of a DOC is to manage and coordinate events specific to that department.