Many health care professionals believe that the possibility of a pandemic occurring is not an ‘if’ but a ‘when’. The SARS epidemic brought to light the very distinct reality that it can occur without warning and have a dramatic effect on health care offices. During a public health care crisis, you still need to continue to run your business and treat patients.
Business continuity planning is an important part of a dental office’s risk management process, in which it assesses all the risks that may prevent it from achieving its objectives, then decides on ways to manage, or mitigate, those risks.
Business continuity can be defined as the processes, procedures, decisions and activities that ensure that an organization can continue to function through an operational interruption.
From a risk management perspective, business continuity plans (BCP) help ensure that a business survives. But when it comes to an influenza pandemic, employers also have a societal responsibility to create an effective plan. Because influenza spreads exclusively through human-to-human contact, and because much of this contact occurs in the workplace, especially in dental offices, planning can help prevent the spread of disease among employees, and help to control its spread within society as a whole.
Although an influenza pandemic is a natural disaster, a business continuity plan that has been developed for other natural disasters, like a tornado or an ice storm or an earthquake, for example, is unlikely to be adequate to deal with a pandemic. Employers should take a much broader, more holistic approach.
Because so many of the issues involved in pandemic planning are people-centred, it’s logical, and crucial, that dentists and their Health and Safety Representatives takes leading roles in pandemic planning. This planning affects a surprisingly large range of human resources policies and procedures.
Having a pandemic/influenza Business Continuity Plan is a very important element to be included in your overall health and safety program. If you wish to receive a pandemic planning checklist to be included with your health and safety program, please send an email to sandie@dentalofficeconsulting.com with the subject line “Pandemic/Influenza Business Continuity Plan”.
