A Multi-Layered Approach to Preparing Your Facility for Flu Season

It’s that time of year when healthcare facilities hunker down for flu season, preparing as best they can for the inevitable surge in respiratory illness. But after last year’s unexpectedly severe season, many infection preventionists and hospital administrators are wondering: what should we expect this year, and how can we better protect our patients and staff?

What Happened Last Flu Season?

The 2024-2025 flu season caught many facilities off guard. Despite early predictions of a moderate season, the actual impact was far worse. The season resulted in over one million hospitalizations—the worst in over a decade—and as many as 130,000 deaths.

Why the disconnect between predictions and reality? Several factors likely contributed: lower vaccination rates among the general population, reduced prior exposure to flu strains during years of COVID-19 mitigation measures, and changes in population immunity. The lesson for facilities is clear: predictions are helpful, but they’re not guarantees.

What to Expect This Flu Season

There’s some cautiously optimistic news for this flu season. It’s rare for flu seasons to be severe two years in a row, largely because widespread exposure to circulating strains during one season leaves much of the population with some immunity to similar strains the following year. In fact, back-to-back severe seasons haven’t occurred since the CDC began systematically tracking seasonal severity in 2003.

For this reason, early indicators suggest this year may be more moderate, but that’s not a reason to drop your guard. Even during mild flu seasons, the numbers are surprising. The 2023-2024 flu season—considered an average flu season—still resulted in 28,000 deaths. Every year, both healthy young people and vulnerable populations alike are severely impacted by complications from influenza.

Plus, it’s still too early to really tell how this season will unfold. It’s always possible for a surprise flu strain to enter the mix and throw everything off, as last year demonstrated. Your facility’s best strategy is to prepare comprehensively rather than banking on favorable predictions.

The Case for a Multi-Layered Approach

No single intervention can adequately protect your facility during flu season. The most effective strategy combines multiple overlapping defenses, each reinforcing the others. Here’s what that looks like:

1. Vaccination Programs

Vaccination remains the first line of defense. This year’s flu vaccines have been updated to target influenza A (H1N1), A (H3N2), and B/Victoria viruses based on strains that circulated in the Southern Hemisphere. A CDC report found that it reduced outpatient visits and hospitalizations by nearly half, which suggests the vaccines should provide strong protection here if similar strains circulate as expected.

Facilities should encourage both staff and patient vaccination, with particular emphasis on high-dose vaccines for those 65 and older. 

This year, the FluMist nasal spray vaccine is also available for home administration in many states through FluMist Home. Approved for ages 2 to 49, this nasal spray is delivered directly to patients’ homes via a third-party online pharmacy. This convenience could improve vaccination rates by reducing barriers to access.

Priorities should include achieving high staff vaccination rates and offering convenient on-site vaccination clinics for patients. 

2. Hand Hygiene and Electronic Monitoring

Hand hygiene remains the foundation of infection prevention in healthcare settings. It’s particularly critical during flu season because prevention is far more effective than treatment—while antiviral medications exist for influenza, they work best when started within the first 48 hours of symptoms. This makes preventing transmission through hand hygiene essential.

The influenza virus can survive on hands for up to 20 minutes and on hard surfaces for up to 48 hours. Healthcare workers moving between patients can unknowingly transmit flu through contaminated hands, even when following other infection control protocols. This makes consistent hand hygiene compliance essential for breaking the chain of transmission.

During flu season, when infection prevention resources are stretched thin, electronic monitoring helps facilities focus efforts where they’ll have the greatest impact—identifying which units, shifts, or circumstances show concerning patterns and enabling targeted interventions before flu spreads throughout the facility.

3. Contact Tracing Capabilities

When flu cases do occur, rapid contact tracing becomes essential for containing spread. SwipeSense’s Contact Tracing application leverages the same sensor network used for hand hygiene monitoring to automatically capture employee-to-patient and employee-to-employee contacts. 

If a staff member or patient tests positive for flu, your infection control team can generate a comprehensive list of potential exposures with the click of a button—a capability that would be virtually impossible to achieve through manual tracking.

4. Additional Strategies

Round out your comprehensive approach with:

•   Respiratory hygiene protocols: Provide masks, tissues, and hand sanitizer in waiting areas and patient rooms
•   Enhanced environmental cleaning: Increase frequency of disinfection for high-touch surfaces
•   Early detection protocols: Stock rapid flu tests and establish clear pathways for testing symptomatic patients and staff
•   Isolation procedures: Ensure clear protocols for isolating flu-positive patients to prevent facility-wide transmission

Each of these strategies addresses different transmission pathways, and together they create overlapping layers of protection that significantly reduce your facility’s risk.

Prediction Is Hard. Prevention Isn’t.

We can’t predict exactly what flu season will bring, but we can prepare in advance. Whether this season turns out to be mild or severe, the facilities that fare best will be those that implemented multiple, reinforcing strategies before flu began circulating widely.

A combination approach is the only approach that consistently protects vulnerable patients and supports your staff through flu season’s challenges. Vaccination, hand hygiene monitoring, contact tracing capabilities, and environmental controls each play a crucial role, and none can be neglected without compromising your facility’s defenses.

As always, the best time to strengthen your infection prevention strategy is now, before your facility is managing an active outbreak.