Public Health Practices

In 2009, the Chicago Fire Department (CFD) identified a need to simultaneously treat multiple stable fire and inhalation victims who require oxygen, whether due to a previous medical condition or as the result of an acute event, such as evacuation of any building, hospital, health care facility or treatment facility, due to fires or other hazards. The solution needed to be mobile, allowing responders to provide oxygen services during emergencies anywhere in the Chicago area.

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.

The University of Illinois describes its H1N1 response as successful, largely due to its comprehensive approach to identifying and isolating ill students. Often, ill students recovered under the watchful eyes of their parents.

Parents were considered an important stakeholder group for communications during the H1N1 response at the University of Illinois. As part of the outreach to parents, Dr. David Lawrance, Medical Director at McKinley Health Center, wrote letters for an electronic newsletter that is distributed to up to 20,000 parents of Illinois students. The letters "had a tremendous reach and kept parental complaints down to a very small number.

Throughout the country, health departments have struggled with how to best reach medically underserved populations during the novel H1N1 influenza pandemic. In Illinois, the Kane County Health Department implemented an innovative communication strategy that involved local sanitarians in their outreach efforts.

Illinois Department of Health developed an online survey tool to collect medical countermeasure data, as required by CDC for the countermeasures report. Based on CDC's Medical Countermeasure Situational Report form, the survey tracks both those supplies the local health departments and hospitals have in stock and those supplies they have already distributed.

McHenry County's pandemic preparedness toolkits contain a variety of good templates and posters that could be used by any organization. Included are a Pandemic Planning Outline for Businesses that coincides with the Health and Human Services (HHS) Business Checklist; planning templates for schools and daycare facilities with key messages; parent letters; signs and symptoms logs; and posters.