York University Pandemic Influenza Plan

1
York UniversityPandemic Influenza Plan

• Canadian Association of University Business
  Officers
• March 22, 2007

2
Pandemic Influenza PlanningMandate

• During Fall 2005, concern was raised at the
  University Board level about the Universitys
  state of preparedness in the context of
  escalating international concern about the
  potential of a pandemic outbreak.
• University President mandated the
  Vice-President Finance and Administration who
  has responsibility for Emergency Preparedness
  and Emergency Response within his portfolio
• VPFAs office also had experience of leading
  cross- divisional working committee during SARS
  in 2004

3
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• Through Fall 2005, York University was already
  participating in discussions about Pandemic
  planning with representatives of GTA
  postsecondary institutions and Toronto Public
  Health.
• An internal University steering committee,
  working with representatives of Toronto Public
  Health, commenced the development of a Pandemic
  Influenza Plan for York.
• The Universitys plan was designed to parallel
  the World Health Organizations model of Alert
  Phases for a Pandemic, upon which Toronto Public
  Health also developed its plan.

4
Pandemic Influenza Planning
Pandemic Influenza Planning Steering Group

• Occupational Health Safety
• Office of VP Academic
• Office of VP Finance Admin.
• Office of VP Students
• Registrar
• Research Services
• School of Nursing
• Security Services
• Transportation Services
• Student Community Development
• Resource Toronto Public Health

• Campus Services Business Operations
• Computing Network Services
• Emergency Preparedness Office
• Facilities Services
• Glendon Campus Student Affairs
• Health Education
• Housing Food Services
• Human Resources Employee Relations
• Legal Counsel
• Marketing Communications
• Media Relations

5
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 1
• Identify Existing Frameworks
• World Health Organization Phases of Pandemic
  Alert
• the Universitys Emergency Management structure
• policies of the University Senate for academic
  disruptions, class cancellation and sessional
  dates
• Toronto Public Health draft Pandemic Influenza
  Plan

6
Pandemic Influenza PlanningExisting Frameworks

• World Health Organization Pandemic Alert Phases

7
Pandemic Influenza PlanningExisting Frameworks

• Managing the Emergency
• Universitys Framework for Emergency Preparedness
• Incident Management System (IMS)
• - Emergency Policy Group
• Emergency Management Group
• Planning Analysis
• Operations
• Logistics
• Finance Administration
• Emergency Response
• Incident Commander
• Emergency Response team (from campus and
  off-campus)
• Unit Specific Emergency Preparedness Plans

8
YORK UNIVERSITY INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
EMERGENCY POLICY GROUP (aka Core Crisis Team) VP
Finance and Administration President Chief
Marketing Communications Officer University
Legal Counsel

• Policy Decisions
• Priorities
• Strategy

POLICY
Additional members may be added, depending on the
nature of the emergency
E M E R G E N C Y O P E R A T I O N S C E
N T R E
Duty Officer (Admin Officer, TBA) Senior Duty
Officer (Admin Officer, TBA)
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT GROUP Emergency Manager
AVP Campus Services Business Operations Safety
Officer Director, Occupational Health
Safety Liaison Officer Manager Emergency
Preparedness Public Information Officer
Director Media Relations (or designate) Scribe
Executive Officer

• Overall coordination
• Resource support
• Operational planning
• Communication

COORDINATION IMPLEMENTATION
Additional members may be added, depending on the
nature of the emergency e.g., senior
representatives from External Emergency Response
Agencies
Operations Chief AVP Facilities
Services Security Operations Manager Research
Assoc. Dir. Research Services CNS Director IT
Infrastructure ITS Director IT
Services Care/Shelter Director Student
Community, Director Housing
Food Services
Logistics Chief AVP Finance Procurement
Director Procurement HR Director HR
Services NGO Support Community Relations
Officer Transpo Manager Transpo.
Services Food Manager Food Services
Finance/Administration Chief Comptroller Insuran
ce Manager Insurance HRER Director
Payroll Budget Manager Budget Audit Internal
Audit designate
Planning Analysis Chief Sr. EO Finance
Admin. Academic Assoc. VP Academic, Sr. EO
Academic Students AVP Student Community, Universi
ty Registrar Facilities Campus Planner
F I E L D O P E R A T I O N S Incident
Commander Director Security Services
P O L I C E, F I R E, E M S / A M B U L A N
C E
9
Pandemic Influenza PlanningExisting Frameworks

• Senate policies already in place
• Policy on Academic Implications of Disruptions
  or Cessations of University Business Due
  to Labour Disputes or Other Causes
• Policy on Class Cancellation
• Policy on Sessional Dates and the Scheduling
  of Examinations
• included in your binder as Attachments to Yorks
  plan

10
Pandemic Influenza PlanningExisting Frameworks

• Toronto Public Health
• Toronto Pandemic Influenza Plan (TPIP)
• http//www.toronto.ca/health/pandemicflu/index.htm
  

11
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 2
• Develop a set of Planning Principles and
  Assumptions and
• present these to the University Executive
  Committee for
• approval.

12
Pandemic Influenza PlanningPlanning Principles
Assumptions

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Planning Principles
• 1. To safeguard the health and wellbeing of
  individual members of the University.
• 2. To protect the academic mission of the
  University through continuity of core activities.
• 3. To protect of the long-term interests of the
  University.

13
Pandemic Influenza PlanningPlanning Principles
Assumptions

• 33 Planning Assumptions . . . including
• In a pandemic situation, the potential exists for
  all to be infected, including the emergency
  response organization and senior University
  decision-makers as no antivirals will be made
  available to York employees or students.
• In a pandemic situation, processes and actions in
  Yorks Plan are likely to be taken out of the
  direct control of the University by public health
  or emergency response agencies.
• Previous influenza pandemics have infected
  regions in multiple waves the duration of each
  wave is likely to be 6 to 8 weeks.

14
Pandemic Influenza PlanningPlanning Principles
Assumptions

• 33 Planning Assumptions . . . including
• 15-35 employee absence as a result of illness,
  caring for sick family members or friends,
  closures of schools and daycare facilities, and
  other absenteeism (per Health Canada).
• Up to one-third of the York population or 20,000
  people to be affected (per Toronto Public
  Health).
• A potential for between 15 and 105 related deaths
  of York community members based on mortality
  rates of 1 in 522 to 1 in 2870 (per Toronto
  Public Health). Yorks mortality rate could be
  higher if the University is one of the clusters
  hit hardest.

15

• 33 Planning Assumptions . . . including
• A trigger point for full suspension of operations
  should be adopted, on the basis of a percentage
  of the University population (students, faculty
  and staff) reported absent.
• York cannot rely on the Ontario health care
  system to provide for the care of sick students
  in residence (who are unable to go home).
• York cannot rely on government to provide policy
  direction before or during a pandemic or on
  assistance being provided during a pandemic,
  given the wide-scale demands and limitation of
  resources.

16
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 3
• Adopt the Universitys Emergency Management
  structure (IMS) for managing the pandemic
  emergency.

17
YORK UNIVERSITY INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
EMERGENCY POLICY GROUP (aka Core Crisis Team) VP
Finance and Administration President Chief
Marketing Communications Officer University
Legal Counsel

• Policy Decisions
• Priorities
• Strategy

POLICY
Additional members may be added, depending on the
nature of the emergency
E M E R G E N C Y O P E R A T I O N S C E
N T R E
Duty Officer (Admin Officer, TBA) Senior Duty
Officer (Admin Officer, TBA)
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT GROUP Emergency Manager
AVP Campus Services Business Operations Safety
Officer Director, Occupational Health
Safety Liaison Officer Manager Emergency
Preparedness Public Information Officer
Director Media Relations (or designate) Scribe
Executive Officer

• Overall coordination
• Resource support
• Operational planning
• Communication

COORDINATION IMPLEMENTATION
Additional members may be added, depending on the
nature of the emergency e.g., senior
representatives from External Emergency Response
Agencies
Operations Chief AVP Facilities
Services Security Operations Manager Research
Assoc. Dir. Research Services CNS Director IT
Infrastructure ITS Director IT
Services Care/Shelter Director Student
Community, Director Housing
Food Services
Logistics Chief AVP Finance Procurement
Director Procurement HR Director HR
Services NGO Support Community Relations
Officer Transpo Manager Transpo.
Services Food Manager Food Services
Finance/Administration Chief Comptroller Insuran
ce Manager Insurance HRER Director
Payroll Budget Manager Budget Audit Internal
Audit designate
Planning Analysis Chief Sr. EO Finance
Admin. Academic Assoc. VP Academic, Sr. EO
Academic Students AVP Student Community, Universi
ty Registrar Facilities Campus Planner
F I E L D O P E R A T I O N S Incident
Commander Director Security Services
P O L I C E, F I R E, E M S / A M B U L A N
C E
18
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 4
• Adopt the World Health Organization Hierarchy of
  Pandemic Alert.

19
Pandemic Influenza PlanningExisting Frameworks

• World Health Organization Pandemic Alert Phases

20
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 5
• Create the Master Pandemic Plan by aligning the
  institutions planning, mitigation and response
  actions within each WHO Alert Phase.

21
Pandemic Influenza PlanningThe Master Plan

• Align planning, mitigation and response actions
  within each WHO Alert Phase
• based on approved planning principles and
  assumptions
• experiences of other types of crises or
  emergencies for York SARS, power black-out,
  union strikes, winter weather emergencies
• use the knowledge of the Universitys subject
  experts at the Planning table to determine if
  action is appropriate, viable and within the
  proper Alert Phase.

22
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 6
• Address academic governance issues and the core
  business activities of teaching, learning and
  research

23
Pandemic Influenza PlanningAcademic Governance

• University Senate has authority over classes,
  exams, evaluation, curriculum and academic
  standards (per York University Act)
• Any deviation from normal expectation is
  governed by Senate decision (e.g., options for
  curricular remediation or recovery following a
  disruption)
• in respect of academic governance, University
  President presented initial elements of the
  steering committees draft plan to Senate
  Executive Committee for review and commentary
• Senate Executive provided written response to
  the steering committee (1) affirming its planning
  assumptions relating to academic governance and
  the application of the existing framework of
  Senate policies and (2) clarifying Senates role
  in a Pandemic emergency.

24
Pandemic Influenza PlanningResearch Continuity

• Yorks Plan addresses the continuity of
  research
• activities during a closure or operational
  reduction due
• to Pandemic outbreak
• Yorks Plan provides a planning template for
• individual researchers and research groups

25
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 7
• Develop Sub-plans for all areas where essential
  functions need
• to be performed during operational reduction or
  closure.

26
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• Sub Plans for Essential Functions
• Central utilities ? Research laboratories
• Security Services ? Animal care
• Custodial Services ? Occupational Health
  Safety
• Grounds Waste Disposal ? Transportation
• Communications ? Employee Payroll
• Network System Services ? Pensions
  Benefits
• Student Housing ? Treasury
• Student Support ? Food Service
• Maintenance ? Registrars Office
  Student Financial Services

27
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• YORK UNIVERSITYS PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PLAN
• Step 8
• Other Considerations
• Additional Key Planning Actions

28
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• Additional Key Planning Actions and Sub-Plans
• Promotion of Personal Preparedness
• Hand Sanitizer
• Health Monitoring and Medical Assistance
• Tracking of Attendance/Absences of Students
• Tracking of Attendance/Absences of Employees
• Protocol for Students in International Programs
• Use and Supply of Personal Protective Equipment
• Mutual Aid
• Stockpiling of Food and Water
• Recruitment of Volunteers
• Training of Volunteers

29
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• Unit Specific Emergency Preparedness Plans
• Business Continuity leading up to and during an
  outbreak
• - essential functions, key personnel/roles,
  critical infrastructure
• - teaching and learning in the context of
  academic governance
• - research continuity
• Communications Tree
• Business Resumption

30
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• Decision-making
• Institution
• President, with Emergency Policy Group (per IMS)
• Suspension and Resumption of Academic Classes and
  other academic matters
• Senate Executive, guided by Senate policies
• Public Health Order
• City of Toronto Public Health

31
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• Continuing Role of Pandemic Steering Committee
• Develop University Plan
• Implement planning and mitigation actions within
  the Plan under Alert Phases 1, 2 and 3
• Monitor status of Pandemic Alert
• Establish Pandemic web site, initiate
  communications plan and health education/disease
  prevention plan
• Discuss planning with employee groups

32
Pandemic Influenza Planning

• Canadian Association of University Business
  Officers
• March 22, 2007

END