Health care workers on guard for flu

With the flu taking its toll in Lawrence and across the nation, health care workers here are taking their own precautions to keep free of infection.

At Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where patients with flu-like illnesses have been flocking to the emergency room the past few weeks, nurses are scrubbing their hands more often and sometimes wearing masks and gloves, officials said.

“As with any kind of airborne infection where contact is an issue, precautions are taken,” said Belinda Rehmer, LMH spokeswoman. “That is routine for this time of year.”

And despite working with people who are sick, absences among staff at LMH and the Visiting Nurses Assn. have not been noticeably higher than usual, officials said.

“We have not seen any major problems,” said Jan Jenkins, executive director of visiting nurses.

Staff at LMH and visiting nurses are offered flu shots when they become available in the early fall. Patients usually respond to suggestions that they get the flu shot, Jenkins said.

“Friends and relatives (of the patients) also know to stay away while they are sick,” Jenkins said.

Since Dec. 1, LMH emergency room staff have seen 195 patients who were confirmed to have the flu and 47 percent of them have been under the age of 3, Rehmer said. The hospital has admitted 22 patients who had the flu.

Despite the increased contact with flu patients, absences among nurses and other LMH staff have not dramatically increased, Rehmer said.

Mary Cloud, a registered nurse at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, washes her hands and wears a mask as part of flu infection-control procedures.

In October, before the flu outbreak, there were an average of five absences per day, which LMH officials consider to be normal, Rehmer said. The average has been the same in December. In November average daily absences were seven, or two above normal.

Of those absences, hospital officials said they had no way of knowing whether they were flu-related.

“We are primarily a female-dominated working staff, and a lot of moms have kids that are sick,” LMH Community Relations director Janice Early-Weas said.

Absences do not leave LMH short-handed, Early-Weas said. The hospital has many part-time nurses and other workers it can call in, she said.

“We know this time of year we are going to have more patients and our staff gets sick,” Early-Weas said.

The Douglas County Health Department ran out of the flu vaccine last week and officials still don’t know when or if they will get more.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is attempting to procure more vaccine supplies, health officials said.At this time the health department has decided not to offer FluMist, a nasal flu vaccine, because it can be obtained at other Lawrence outlets, said Barbara Schnitker, director of nurses.FluMist can only be administered to healthy people ages 5 to 49. A dose can be received at the following locations:¢ Lawrence Family Practice, 4951 W. 18th St.¢ Kansas University’s Watkins Memorial Health Center.¢ Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, 346 Maine.¢ Hy-Vee pharmacy, 4000 W. Sixth St. Doses are only administered to adults 18 to 49 years old because state law prevents pharmacists from administering it to children.All of these locations request that someone wanting FluMist call first.