Not just for the birds. Assessing your medical practice for pandemic readiness

Is your medical practice ready to deal with a pandemic avian flu--or any other potentially lethal disease? Your pandemic response plan should anticipate progressive levels relative to the event's severity. The degree of the outbreak will affect patients, staffing, supplies and basic services such as telephone, electricity, mail, Internet, water and repair support. It's likely that we can't depend on the federal government to come to our aid in a pandemic - resources will be spread too thin. The best defense is planning and preparedness. The practice that chooses not to plan for disasters risks loss of staff, patients and community status when catastrophe occurs.