UNLV Pandemic Response Plan

Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan The UNLV Student Wellness Center identified trigger events, which correspond to the phases of the pandemic rating scales used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, to guide campus response during a pandemic (previously submitted to the Board of Regents). This document serves as an appendix to that plan to address the unique elements of a pandemic (longer duration of the crisis, high mortality rates, employee absenteeism, etc.) that fall outside the scope of UNLV’s current Emergency Operations Center protocol. Trigger At the recommendation of the CDC to alert communities of a pending potentially severe pandemic. Place EOC personnel on imminent standby.  Alert Police Services staff  Test EOC equipment and notification systems At the recommendation of the CDC to activate full or partial moderately stringent community pandemic mitigation strategies.  The Crisis Action Team would be notified through the UNLV Police Department Communications Center  The Emergency Operations Center is activated and staffed in accordance with social distancing principals  UNLV Police Department would assist in the evacuation of the campus and residence halls  UNLV Police Department would work with facilities to place concrete barriers and close off main vehicular entrances to the campus and monitor these with officers  Police officer work schedules would be modified to a “12 on” and “12 off” schedule, 7 days a week and maintain operational continuity At the recommendation of the CDC to activate in its entirety the community mitigation strategies. Police Services  The Emergency Operations Center remains operational as appropriate  It is important for the institution to define and determine the necessity to quarantine and where that authority remains  UNLV Police Department would assist in the evacuation of the campus and residence halls  UNLV Police Department would work with facilities to place concrete barriers and close off main vehicular entrances to the campus and monitor these with officers  Police officer work schedules would be modified to a “12 on” and “12 off” schedule, 7 days a week and maintain operational continuity  The UNLV Emergency Operations Center would request mutual aid through the Clark County Emergency Operations Center if needed for a prolonged and sustained mission 1 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan PANDEMIC LEVEL TRIGGER EVENT At the recommendation of the CDC to alert communities of a pending potentially severe pandemic. Place EOC personnel on imminent standby. At the recommendation of the CDC At the recommendation of the to activate full or partial moderately CDC to activate in its entirety the stringent community pandemic community mitigation strategies. mitigation strategies. Student Wellness Center (Student Health Center and Student Counseling & Psychological Services)  Provide increased inoculation of seasonal flu vaccine to UNLV community if available  Encourage staff to make personal emergency preparedness plans with their families  Engage staff in pandemic planning and provide opportunity to discuss and rehearse the plan during staff meetings  Fit test staffs with direct patient care responsibilities and appropriate essential personnel with N-95 respiratory protection  Provide campus wide in –services on proper use of personal protective equipment  Review and revise the list of supplies that would be needed during a pandemic, and increase the amount of stock  Maintain contacts with CDC, State Health Division and Southern Nevada Health Division, and communicate to UNLV administration via EOC  Answer all health related inquiries to the university and provide multiple media forms of communication to the community based on accurate information obtained from governmental agencies  Utilize CDC preprinted information such as cough and hand hygiene etiquette found at cdc.gov, and place appropriate materials on the UNLV Pandemic webpage  Distribute hand sanitizer, respiratory masks and hygiene messages to places on campus where large numbers of people congregate such as the student union, dining commons, classroom buildings, residence halls etc.  Initiate treatment of acutely symptomatic cases immediately  Isolation and quarantine in the negative pressure room at the SHC may be necessary until the patient can be safely transported to a local hospital.  Provide and encourage all patients entering SHC to wear masks if exhibiting any respiratory symptoms  Engage voicemail and email system to accommodate UNLV community questions  Use phone tree to inform staff of developments and changes to processes  Use 12 hour on and 12 hour off staff shifts while operational  Provide psychological counseling to students via telephone and other alternative methods  Provide medical and mental health consultation to the campus community 2 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan PANDEMIC LEVEL TRIGGER EVENT At the recommendation of the CDC to alert communities of a pending potentially severe pandemic.  In this stage, Academic Affairs would utilize classroom faculty to serve as conduits of important health information to the student population  College, school, and department staff would be notified of important health information through existing avenues of intra-campus communication At the recommendation of the CDC to activate full or partial moderately stringent community pandemic mitigation strategies.  Executive Vice President & Provost would determine if classes should be cancelled  Depending upon the timing of the outbreak, classes, if cancelled, would be restarted at a later point or faculty would be requested to utilize alternative avenues of instruction and testing (e.g., electronic submission of papers, reading assignments via e-mail, etc.)  UNLV students abroad would be relocated, given the option to transfer to another program, or brought home depending upon the specific circumstances in each case At the recommendation of the CDC to activate in its entirety the community mitigation strategies. Academic Affairs In addition to the actions of the prior levels:  All classes and non-essential functions cancelled  Students, faculty, and staff advised to avoid congregating  An animal lab to be centralized at the Animal Care Facility and maintained until the pandemic is over  Equipment and labs requiring daily or weekly maintenance to be serviced through staggered attendance by faculty and/or staff  Telephones forwarded to alternative telephone numbers 3 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan PANDEMIC LEVEL TRIGGER EVENT At the recommendation of the CDC to alert communities of a pending potentially severe pandemic. Place EOC personnel on imminent standby.  Test and provide updates on procedures for remote access to critical applications including: o Lotus Notes e-mail o Rebel Mail e-mail o WebCampus (Course Management System) Review and revise procedures for remote access to Data Warehouse Test the procedures for using WebCampus for all courses Make active the web pages developed to explain to various campus constituents how to access technology-based services remotely Test the procedures developed to operate the student and faculty/staff Help Desks, mostly by remote Test the procedures for operating critical systems remotely. Examples of critical systems include: network infrastructure, client server support, lab servers, network applications servers (e.g., VoIP), environmental management and controls, Marlok system, major applications. Gather and test audio/visual support for pandemic operations centers and video conferencing rooms Review OIT primary and backup staffing plans for the applications listed. Set priorities in the event that both the primary and backup staff is unable to work either on site or from home. At the recommendation of the CDC to activate full or partial moderately stringent community pandemic mitigation strategies.   Under the direction of the EOC, make operational the pandemic operations centers and video conferencing rooms Implement the virtual mini-operations center designed in cooperation with the EOC to handle the activities management teams must deal with in all stages of the pandemic Under the direction of the EOC, determine the steps necessary to transfer work from on-campus to off-campus As appropriate, begin the migration of critical applications from on campus to off campus As needed, begin implementation of the OIT staffing plan for providing services remotely At the recommendation of the CDC to activate in its entirety the community mitigation strategies. OIT  The activities described at each level are dependent on completing steps outlined in the OIT Pre Pandemic Planning document  All of the steps that depend on network connectivity both on and off campus are dependent on the ability of the campus internet service providers  Continue to ensure the existing technologies are available in the appropriate locations and can be accessed by the appropriate people           4 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan   Review the procedures in place that allow OIT staff to work remotely Review the processes developed to provide UNLV staff with remote access and support for essential functions as determined by the EOC. Examples include: adequate computing environments and access to communication services. Test virtual mini-operations center designed in cooperation with the EOC to handle the activities management teams must deal with in all stages of the pandemic  5 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan PANDEMIC LEVEL TRIGGER EVENT At the recommendation of the CDC to alert communities of the pandemic, and its current severity. Place EOC personnel on imminent standby.  Encourage employees to stay home if they or a family member are sick  Ensure that all employees can access their network, Lotus Notes, Voice Mail accounts from home  Compile and maintain a stockpile of supplies that could be needed during a pandemic (face masks, latex gloves, hand sanitizer, tissues, etc.)  Review contingencies with vendors, clients, consultants, contractors, etc. to ensure the continued service during and after the pandemic  RMS will begin working with researchers, labs, professors, deans, etc. to ensure the safety of research, hazardous materials and rad. material during the pandemic  Each department will discuss their individual department’s pandemic plans; such as telecommuting, revised schedules, etc. Human Resources staff will be available from this point forward to assist departments in the areas of telecommuting, scheduling, leave procedures, return to work guidelines and any other related topics.  Create a list of anyone that could possibly come to campus during a closure  Review and disseminate essential operations- most departments will require minimum staffing to insure their operational requirements can be met. All personnel are required to be on-call to At the recommendation of the CDC to activate all or some of the community mitigation strategy. At the recommendation of the CDC to activate in its entirety the community mitigation strategies. Div. of Finance and Business:  Heed all warnings from the SHC  Begin working rotating shifts so fewer people are in offices at one time  Pass out face masks, hand sanitizer, tissues, etc., encouraging staff to use and replace as often as necessary  All departments will ensure that all routine procedures are up to date (i.e. all payments to vendors are caught up, all hazardous materials have been shipped, etc.)  Personnel can purchase emergency goods and services via phone, email, etc. from remote area. Some of the Purchasing staff has PCards which can be used instead of purchase orders.  All areas will communicate with staff and other departments that their services will be limited and will be focused on specific areas of concern. For example HVAC will be very critical in not spreading the flu and custodial services will be focused on areas that are targeted as critical.  Communicate to CIT that processing of payroll documents and payrolls may be done off site  Facilitate BCN processing of payrolls if BCS closed. Payrolls handled through direct deposit and remote printing of checks. If the CSB is not open, remote printing may be handled by BCN or other NSHE institutions utilizing the UNLV printer software.  Authorized staff has access to the bank  All departments can work from home and personnel will be on call in case of emergency  Facilities- 2 HVAC Techs, 2 electricians and 2 plumbers that will work 12 hours shifts and be relieved by fresh personnel after 3 days  Controller- Occasionally will need to have personnel on campus to commit funds and make payments to vendors  Planning & Construction- Only if strategic utility work was in progress on a construction site – and then only until the work is safely contained  Delivery Services- At least 1 staff member would need to be present to receive U. S. Mail and Parcel deliveries. These items would be stored in Receiving Warehouses for later delivery  Telecommunications- At least 1 staff member would be on call for maintenance of the telephone switch and to coordinate service with Embarq  Would work with EOC/CIT for specific concerns such as authority to commit funds. Authority to waive competitive requirements. Ability to get to data base information from a remote area.  Determine if year-end tax reporting would require additional assessment and coordination with SCS 6 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan assist with operations as needed  Review with appropriate personnel that all legacy systems, data warehouse information and servers are accessible by staff off campus via the web. Access to computer hardware for staff is essential. Options include use of personal computers, or access to loaned equipment or secure data center.  Communicate to personnel and review processes for payables documents to be processed from remote site. website and may download daily bank activity and process transactions. NSHE may handle bank transfers on behalf of UNLV. All journals and interdepartmental requests may be processed remotely. Daily suspense transactions may be processed and the Financial System updated daily. Delivery Services will need to coordinate delivery from Purchasing of documents supporting payments to Accounts Payable Cashiering would be limited. Student payments would be required to be processed through on-line web application or lockbox. Cash would not be accepted. Departmental receipts may be deposited at drop site or held at EOC for cashier staff to pick up and process. Student account billings and collections may continue from remote site. Students and Financial Aid may communicate with staff via email. Students in pay status may continue to make payments to service provider. Students may communicate with staff via email. Journals to the financial system may be processed from remote site. Students may access the web for tax information. Students may communicate with staff via email.       7 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan PANDEMIC LEVEL TRIGGER EVENT At the recommendation of the CDC to alert communities of the pandemic, and its current severity. Place EOC personnel on imminent standby.  Sodexho has policies for the proper handling of food which includes hygiene etiquette. Frequent hand washing and the use of gloves when handling ready to eat foods.  This would be emphasized and masks could be made available  Employees would be asked to stay home from work if they are ill  Essential operations include the accounting and personnel offices that need to remain open  Reduce the number of food service facilities open. The level of services offered will be dependent upon the campus strategy and the number of people on campus.  Stockpile non-perishable goods At the recommendation of the CDC to activate all or some of the community mitigation strategy. At the recommendation of the CDC to activate in its entirety the community mitigation strategies. SODEXO  Work with Sodexho vendors to insure the food supply to campus  Social distancing of our employees – stagger breaks, post infection control guidelines  Eliminate self serve food items. Food to be served and/or pre packaged.  Eliminate catering services  Consolidate workforce from closed locations. They could work in place of any employee that is ill.  All of the items listed above  Offer services from one location on campus  (Dining Commons) to serve the essential staff and students remaining on campus 8 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan PANDEMIC LEVEL TRIGGER EVENT At the recommendation of the CDC to alert communities of the pandemic, and its current severity. Place EOC personnel on imminent standby. Review plans to deal with contingencies such as:  Key personnel becoming ill (i.e., alternate plan needed to move electronic support to a different staff member’s home office)  Periodic loss of power and/or internet access, either on campus or at a home office  Widespread shut-down of key support structures on the UNLV campus (e.g., servers). Such contingencies would include consideration of two key variables: o who in each office assumes critical functions as other staff members become ill or lose infrastructure? (i.e., a chain-ofcommand would be established prior to staff leaving campus o at what point (what series of circumstances) does the executive director of each office decide to discontinue all services to the campus community? Individual unit planning for these contingencies will provide more specific instructions for staff and the campus community.  Once researchers who are unable to accomplish their research activities are identified, assistance from appropriate colleagues and/or staff would be requested so that their research activities could be continued while they are off campus. At the recommendation of the CDC to activate all or some of the community mitigation strategy. At the recommendation of the CDC to activate in its entirety the community mitigation strategies. Research And Graduate Studies  External entities involved or having interest in UNLV research activities would be notified if researchers could no longer perform their research duties due to illness. For example, grant sponsors would be notified of potential delays in such situations. In order to accomplish this, researchers who are ill would need to be identified through campus notification vehicles.  Most services (i.e., research support and protocol processing) would be handled in a similar fashion as listed above for the other research offices, with personnel beginning to leave campus and work electronically offcampus as the PSI Level becomes more severe. At PSI Level III and above, no more animals would be available for researchers in their laboratories, i.e., animals would be quarantined in the animal facility.  As the campus enters higher PSI Level categories and begins evacuating, all critical external agencies (e.g., funding agencies, regulatory bodies, etc.) would be notified of UNLV’s impending shut-down of research activities and corresponding services  The University would provide laptops, supplies and IT assistance to staff for award activities, protocol processing, etc., to use at remote locations (home offices). This would occur as the campus moved  Tasks would be accomplished by telephone and email, mainly from remote locations, as PSI Level III moved to PSI Level IV/V. At this stage, only essential services would be maintained (i.e., no new protocols or grant proposals would be processed).  In the event the entire campus were evacuated, all services of these offices would be suspended, except for those services that could be accomplished electronically in home offices by key staff who are able to remain healthy. 9 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan from PSI Level II to PSI Level III. Only key staff would remain on campus at PSI Level III. For example, in the OPRS an expedited review process would be performed by one member of each biomedical and social behavioral IRB, rather than the full committee, or full-board review could be accomplished via a call-in center.  As the PSI Level increased to III or higher, only a single individual would remain in the animal care facility to maintain the populations in a healthy condition. This may involve commuting to campus for a short time each day to provide critical functions, and possibly moving high priority populations to more reliable off-campus locations. 10 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan PANDEMIC LEVEL TRIGGER EVENT Human Resources PSIthe recommendation of the At Level II WHO 4 communities of the to alert CDC PSIthe recommendation of the At Level III WHO 5 to activate all or some of the CDC PSIthe recommendation of the At IV/V WHO 6 activate in its entirety CDC to pandemic, and its current severity. Phase 4: Small cluster(s) with limited humanPlace EOC personnelspread is highly to-human transmission but on imminent standby. localized, suggesting the virus is not well adapted to humans  Identify essential personnel in HR and minimum staffing needs (if presence on campus is needed) in the event that the campus closes  Assist departments in establishing guidelines for telecommuting  Provide information to campus community regarding how to access benefit/health services if needed  Develop guidelines on handling absences unique to a pandemic event  Provide information to employees traveling within or outside of the country on business regarding travel contingency plans in the event that travel is restricted  Provide information to campus community regarding personal and family protection plans and response strategies in the event of a pandemic (www.pandemicflu.gov)  Coordinate dissemination of health and insurance information to employees with the PEBP and other University benefit providers  Assist departments in developing secession plans community mitigation strategy. Sustained cases of human-to-human transmission of a highly virulent strain with cases appearing in a city with an international airport anywhere in the establishing  Assist departments inworld guidelines for restricting travel to affected areas  Implement telecommuting guidelines identified during phase II  Coordinate dissemination of health and insurance information to employees with PEBP and other University benefit providers  Appointing authority can conduct emergency hires pursuant to NRS 284.315. Emergency hires are only valid for 60 days  Provide information to employees traveling within or outside of the country on business regarding travel contingency plans in the event that travel is restricted  Provide information to campus community regarding personal and family protection plans and response strategies in the event of a pandemic (www.pandemicflu.gov) the community human-to-human mitigation Sustained cases of strategies.of a highly virulent strain transmission with cases appearing in North America  Place employees who have been exposed to the pandemic influenza, are suspected to be ill, or become ill at work on either mandatory sick leave or administrative leave  Coordinate dissemination of health and insurance information to employees with PEBP and other University benefit providers  Appointing authority can conduct emergency hires pursuant to NRS 284.315. Emergency hires are only valid for 60 days 11 Appendix - UNLV Pandemic Response Plan Residential Life   Review planning documents and insure staff and UNLV community is aware of plan. Alert staff and students. Communication with staff and students will be done via UNLV RebelMail and website. Share alternative housing plans including students going home. Encourage social distancing immediately.   Encourage social distancing. Local students would be encouraged to go home. Meet with UNLV leadership to review and revise plan as necessary. Consider need to implement Housing Pandemic Plan. Non-essential personnel will be advised to stay home and put on an on-call status. Communication with staff and students will be done via UNLV RebelMail and website.     Support university and local health authority’s directives. Quarantine students as needed. Implement Housing Pandemic Plan. All non-essential personnel will be asked to stay home on an on-call status. This will include live-in staff. Communication with staff and students will be done via UNLV RebelMail and website.      12