Flu Prevention

Flu Prevention Strategies

To help prevent the flu, you can take these steps to protect yourself and others:

• Get the flu vaccine every year
• Wash hands often
• Avoid touching your face
• Cover coughs and sneezes
• Wear a mask
• Stay home if you’re sick

At Northwestern Medicine, we take these steps to help protect you and others:

• Vaccination: We offer the seasonal influenza vaccine to all employees at no cost. More than 99% of our employees take the vaccine each year.

• Healthcare kiosks: Kiosks throughout our hospitals provide masks, sanitizing wipes and tissues. These help reduce the spread of viral and bacterial infections, including influenza, COVID-19, and even the common cold.

• Education: We help patients, visitors and staff learn how to prevent the flu and reduce its spread.

• Care in a protected environment: We use safety steps to protect you, visitors and healthcare workers when a patient has flu symptoms.

• Clean hands: We encourage healthcare workers and visitors to clean their hands often, especially when entering and leaving patient rooms. You can find hand sanitizer stations in patient rooms and throughout our facilities.

• Visitor policy: Please do not visit the hospital if you feel sick. When illness is spreading quickly in the community, we may check visitors for symptoms or limit visits to protect patients and staff.

• Staff policy: Employees who interact with patients and become ill with the flu must stay home from work for 7 days or until they have been fever-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer.