News Release-- June 11, 2006

CDC Gets Its Flu Shots

Many employers provide some health services for their employees – from the occasional visiting nurse to full-fledged clinics staffed with doctors and many nurses. As with any other kind of health care, the quality and type of occupational medicine services will vary from one provider to the next. But when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides medical services for its own employees, you can be sure that they'll see it's done right.

The CDC contracts with CSC to provide all physicians, nurses, counselors, administrative personnel, equipment and supplies to operate its three Occupational Health Clinics. We also staff the CDC's three fitness centers and provide special health promotion programs and training.

Under the same contract, CSC is responsible for acquiring flu vaccine administered during its flu "open houses" in the fall. This was more challenging than usual in 2005. Both at the CDC and on a national scale, demand for flu shots in the early season exceeded supply thanks to a shortage of vaccine the previous year and publicity about avian flu, to mention only two factors.

CSC initially acquired 4,000 doses of the GlaxoSmithKline Fluarix vaccine, enough for all the "employee only" open houses, which began in late October. Some open houses in the final round, which included contractors, did run short, but CSC managed to obtain an additional 400 doses in December, which supplied an additional round of open houses, replenishment of reserve stocks, and shipments to remote CDC locations that had not previously received the vaccine. Thanks to such acquisition acumen, the CDC had a healthier staff with fewer absences during the 2005 flu season.
 
 
Posted June 10, 2006