Protecting Illinois Nursing Home Residents from Swine Flu
The Health Care Council of Illinois is taking steps to protect its 65,000 long-term care professionals and 100,000 nursing home residents from the swine flu. A type of influenza, the swine flu is considered a more serious and potentially fatal virus and at this time there is still no vaccine.
Swine Flu Symptoms:
• Eye infections
• Influenza-like symptoms
• Serious respiratory disease
• Pneumonia
As of May 7, 2009, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that there are now 225 confirmed swine flu cases in Illinois. If even healthy people are at risk of contracting the contagious virus, you can imagine how much more dangerous the swine flu can be to sick or elderly people with weakened immune systems.
This is why it is so important that Chicago nursing home workers and long-term care employees in other Illinois nursing homes take the necessary steps to make sure that the virus doesn’t enter their nursing homes so that workers and residents don’t get sick and spread the swine flu to each other.
To protect Illinois nursing home residents from the swine flu, HCCI recommends the following:
• Make sure all visitors use a hand sanitizer before entering an Illinois nursing home patient’s room.
• Examine visitors for flu-like symptoms and don’t let them into the nursing home if they exhibit any signs of the illness.
• Make sure that you have tissue boxes, covered waste baskets, and hand gel sanitizers available throughout the nursing home.
• Teach residents, workers, and guests about proper cough etiquette and techniques.
• Keep residents with flu-like symptoms in one area of the nursing home. Make sure that the nursing home workers are treating them.
• Make sure that staff members treating these patients use facial masks, gloves, and gowns.
If your loved one got sick at an Illinois nursing home because the nursing home neglected to take proper care of the resident or failed to maintain an environment that was free from harmful bacteria or other unsanitary conditions, you may have grounds for filing an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit on their behalf.
Illinois Nursing Homes Prepare for Swine Flu Pandemic, Murphysboro American, May 6, 2009
Illinois Swine Flue Cases Up, Chicago Sun-Times, May 7, 2009
Related Web Resources:
H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu), CDC
Health Care Council of Illinois
Chicago nursing home abuse lawyer Steve Malman would like to talk to you. Contact the Law Offices of Steven J Malman & Associates, PC today.
