Preventing Transmission of Respiratory Viruses in Healthcare Settings

There are many actions that healthcare facilities can take to help protect staff, patients, and communities from contagious respiratory diseases such as influenza (flu), COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV):

Encourage and administer immunizations for flu, COVID-19, and RSV as indicated.  

• Use resources from immunization experts to aid conversations about flu vaccines,  COVID-19 vaccines, and RSV immunizations. 
• Enroll as a Vaccine for Children (VCF) provider to help reduce barriers to vaccines.
• Implement strategies to improve vaccination rates in healthcare personnel.   
  • Learn more about healthcare personnel and vaccinations in Virginia. 

Promote good respiratory hygiene practices to patients, visitors, and healthcare workers.   

• Provide instructions when scheduling appointments and post visual alerts at the entrances to healthcare facilities reminding patients with symptoms of a respiratory infection to notify when registering for care, wear a mask while in the facility, and clean hands often. 
• Provide educational resources to patients and use communication toolkits for signage and hand-outs.
  • Use resources from the VDH Respiratory Communication Toolkit.
  • Provide disease-specific fact sheets to patients.
• Provide adequate and accessible supplies in staff, patient and visitor areas, such as:  
  • Tissues 
  • Face masks 
  • Trash cans 
  • Alcohol-based hand sanitizer 

Manage ill healthcare personnel and patients appropriately.

• Report diseases and conditions as required by Virginia law.
• Implement transmission-based precautions for patients with confirmed or suspected respiratory viruses.
• Ensure staff use appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE) when working with patients with confirmed or suspected respiratory illness.
• Healthcare workers and other staff should stay home when sick until return criteria have been met.
  • VDH provides recommendations for the management of healthcare personnel exposed to or infected with COVID-19 or seasonal influenza.
• Administer antiviral treatment and chemoprophylaxis for flu and COVID-19, when appropriate.
  • Pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) medication is available for some people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised for additional protection against COVID-19.

Use local metrics to inform additional layers of prevention strategies, including broader use of source control.

• Data sources that can be used to identify higher levels of community respiratory virus transmission include: 
  • VDH Emergency Visits for Respiratory Illness 
  • NHSN Hospital Respiratory Data Dashboard 
  • CDC Respiratory Illnesses Data Channel 
  • CDC RESP-NET Interactive Dashboard 
• Additional prevention strategies that can be implemented include: 
  • Physical distancing in waiting areas. 
  • Broader use of source control by requesting patients and staff wear a mask. 
  • Improving indoor air quality where possible. 

Stay up to date with important topics for the clinical community in Virginia.  

• Sign up for the VDH Healthcare Professionals Newsletter. 
• Participate in the Virginia Influenza Sentinel Surveillance Program.