MID-HUDSON – It’s flu season and the state health department has declared the flu virus prevalent resulting in hospitals in the Hudson Valley taking additional steps to prevent its spread.
Those include enhanced efforts to vaccinate all employees and distribution of surgical facemasks. Worn by employees, masks offer a physical barrier to flu transmission. That is a comprehensive effort to protect patients, visitors, and employees from exposure to the flu virus.
A declaration of flu prevalence by the state health department triggers public health law that was put in place in 2014. Employees of hospitals and residential healthcare facilities and agencies who are not vaccinated against the flu are required to wear a mask while in areas where patients or residents are typically present.
The Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association said all hospitals in the Hudson Valley offer flu vaccine to all employees as well as surgical facemasks, as required by the state.
“Flu prevention is a priority to all hospitals in the Hudson Valley. Hospital employees work every day to lessen the spread of flu virus by adhering to strict infection control practices and prevention guidelines,” said Wendy Darwell, president and CEO of the Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State, the organization that represents hospitals in the nine counties east and north of New York City. “Hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities must also document the number and percentage of personnel vaccinated against the flu to state and federal authorities.”
