Developing Your Pandemic Influenza Business Continuity Plan

The flu pandemic continues to threaten organizations with unimaginable disastrous impact. This book provides the principles of the BCM planning methodology and shows how they can be applied to prepare an effective and detailed pandemic flu business continuity plan. It is a comprehensive guide book that includes a practical 'fast track' how-to-do-it template so that even those without previous experience in business continuity planning, can develop their own pandemic flu business continuity plans.

This guidance is an update of WHO global influenza preparedness plan: the role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics, published March 2005 (WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5).

Business continuity planning is critical to private sector resiliency in the face of numerous internal and external threats in the globally networked business environment. Additionally, homeland security is dependent on the economic viability of the American business community, so the risk of inaction in the private sector is unacceptable. The pandemic influenza threat is especially taxing on businesses, and brings second order impacts with severe economic consequences for the United States as a whole. Lack of business continuity planning effort before the pandemic threat materializes among companies of all sizes will have detrimental impacts beyond the scope of this thesis. The combined pandemic-induced impacts of absenteeism, health care system breakdown, unpredictable government reactions, and general infrastructure failures will severely impact homeland and national security. These impacts will be exacerbated by add-on or seasonal disasters. Typically government officials have little fluency in private sector resiliency efforts. This thesis provides an outline of current business continuity procedures and uses pandemic influenza to model specialized business continuity recommendations. Business continuity planning is an ongoing project run by a business continuity manager within an organization. The business continuity life cycle is only successful with endorsement from organizational leaders and clear communication of objectives. Business continuity planning must be pan-organizational and include a threat assessment, risk assessment, business impact analysis, and detailed business continuity plan. The plan itself must be updated as the organization evolves over time and must be exercised regularly to ensure employees and managers are confident in its usage. Effective business continuity can guide decision makers from the time a pandemic (or other threat) emerges to the time recovery starts and help avoid foggy decisions typically caused by the stressors of a disaster. Strong decisions and communication guided by the continuity plan allow the business to avoid undue losses to personnel, capital, and/or reputation. The mitigation and planning efforts of the business continuity project builds resiliency in the business that allows it to contribute to regional response and recovery efforts. Most of all, strong business continuity efforts preserve the most important component of any business -- its people.

Preparedness and rigorous planning on community, state, and regional levels are critical to containing the threat of pandemic illness. Steeped in research and recommendations from lessons learned, Pandemic Planning describes the processes necessary for the efficient and effective preparation, prevention, response, and recovery from a pandemic threat. This evidence-based book guides plan development and provides solutions to common strategic, ethical, and practical challenges to pandemic preparedness. Topics discussed include: The current threat of pandemics and how they relate to homeland security and emergency management Leadership and incident management structure as they relate to pandemic preparedness Computer simulation models and data visualization for strengthening prevention and control measures within a community Marketing principles and how they promote pandemic preparedness for a community Lessons learned from pandemic influenza exercises conducted with regional hospitals and how those lessons can be applied to other institutions Government resources available to assist with the planning for and monitoring of a pandemic event Economic and logistic concerns that arise during a pandemic Discussing preparedness across a variety of institutional levels, the authors’ collaboration with national research leaders and community stakeholders has enabled them to assemble the most current and essential information available on pandemic preparedness. Their book distills this information into workable strategies to bolster public health, mitigate risk, and protect the population.

As the current H1N1 outbreak underscores, an influenza pandemic remains a real threat to our nation. Over the past 3 years, 12 reports have been issued and 4 testimonies to Congress have been held to help the nation better prepare for a possible pandemic. While a number of actions have been taken to plan for a pandemic, including developing a national strategy and implementation plan, many gaps in pandemic planning and preparedness still remain. This statement covers six thematic areas: (1) leadership, authority, and coordination; (2) detecting threats and managing risks; (3) planning, training, and exercising; (4) capacity to respond and recover; (5) information sharing and communication; and (6) performance and accountability. Illus.

The next pandemic virus outbreak could have severe worldwide consequences, causing illness and death for individuals and families, and slowdowns and closures for businesses and corporations. A method to manage infectious disease pandemics is to use a process known as pandemic planning. The aim is to prevent infectious disease outbreaks, reduce the potential impact and consequences, and continue business in the event of a pandemic. Pandemic Planning Handbook is a comprehensive text on the topic of pandemic planning. It is written from a business perspective and includes detailed coverage of COVID-19 and 2009 H1N1 pandemics. The primary objectives of the book are to educate readers about infectious disease pandemics and give them the skills to manage pandemic risks and develop comprehensive and effective pandemic plans. The book presents a cyclical pandemic planning process for developing plans. The process considers the extent of an organization’s knowledge and the understanding of infectious disease pandemics, how the organization manages the associated pandemic risks, development of essential plan components, and the validity and maintenance of plans, and the establishment of a pandemic training program. It is presented in detail in four easy to follow sections: Pandemic education and awareness Pandemic risk management Pandemic plan development Pandemic testing, maintenance, and training A wide range of organizations will benefit from this book including the private sector, government, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and the healthcare community. It is intended for pandemic response planners such as business continuity, emergency management, human resource, risk management, facility management, health and safety staff, and anyone interested in preparing for an infectious disease outbreak or pandemic.

"Once again, nature has presented us with a daunting challenge: the possibility of an influenza pandemic. Scientists and doctors cannot tell us where or when the next pandemic will strike, or how severe it will be, but most agree: at some point, we are likely to face another pandemic. And the scientific community is increasingly concerned by a new influenza virus known as H5N1 -- or avian flu -- that is now spreading through bird populations across Asia, and has recently reached Europe. While avian flu has not yet acquired the ability to spread easily from human to human, there is still cause for vigilance. The virus has developed some characteristics needed to cause a pandemic: It has demonstrated the ability to infect human beings, and it has produced a fatal illness in humans. If the virus were to develop the capacity for sustained human-to-human transmission, it could spread quickly across the globe. Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland -- and time to prepare. My administration has developed a comprehensive national strategy, with concrete measures we can take to prepare for an influenza pandemic. Our strategy is designed to meet three critical goals: First, we must detect outbreaks that occur anywhere in the world; second, we must protect the American people by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs, and improve our ability to rapidly produce new vaccines against a pandemic strain; and, third, we must be ready to respond at the federal, state and local levels in the event that a pandemic reaches our shores."--President George Bush.