For the fourth consecutive year, Glaxo Smith Klein says there will be 'short delays' in the delivery of flu vaccine for 2007/8. The current delay is due to slower-than-anticipated growth of the Solomon (H1N1) flu strain.
While a slowdown in production and resulting shortage of vaccine was initially to be limited to Europe, in the view of some who watch these matters U.S. shipments could be delayed, as well.

“We won’t be affected,” said Vaccination Services of America President and founder, Alan Kohll. “Each year, we order vaccine early and in large quantities. This does two things for us and our corporate customers. First, it puts us at the head of the line. For several years, VSA has taken delivery of the first large-volume shipment of vaccine to reach our shores. Second, we’re assured of a quantity sufficient to meet the increasing demands of our corporate customers, all of whom want their workforces vaccinated.

“There’s actually a third, hidden benefit,” noted Kohll. “Last year, we had a large enough supply that we were able to help out other providers that hadn’t received all the vaccine they needed. We expect to be able to do the same this flu season.”

Presentations made during the conference included the following titles: "Rewarding Healthy Behavior: Incentives in Health Promotion," "Communicating Rewards and Lifestyle Change," "Leveraging Incentives in Health Promotion" and "Engaging Employees in their Health."

“As those title suggest, employers and health care professionals have had empirical and anecdotal evidence of the effect of positive changes in employees’ personal habits and behaviors,” said Health Fairs of America President Alan Kohll. “While it’s difficult to quantify,” he explained, “it’s clear improved employee health has a direct impact on bottom line performance. The reason is constrained – even reduced – employee health care costs. This is magnified significantly by the fact only about 20% of any employee base is responsible for the majority of direct and indirect health care costs.”

By implication, according to Kohll, finding the one employee in five needing change and fostering specific, healthier personal behaviors will have a significant, direct affect on profitability.

“That,” emphasized Kohll, “is why we developed Strategic Health Management, Inc. SHM is a set of tools we use to identify specific areas of need, develop customized solutions and apply them. That includes the ability to find, analyze, guide and support individual employees in that 20% group.”

SHM, said Kohll, is working at the beginning of an entirely new approach to holding down employee health costs. “Much like medicine itself, we’re learning how to attack the problem at its core. The future looks very good.”

It happens every year. We send out snail-mail reminders. We add urgent messages to our Web sites. We email current, former and prospective clients reminding them to reserve preferred dates for their employee flu vaccination events. And still, come October there’s a last-minute rush for fewer and fewer available dates, with some clients left completely out in the cold because of scheduling limitations.

Don’t be left out in the cold. Reserve you date(s) now!
If a vaccination event is important enough to make sure it happens, it’s worth getting management sign-off (if that’s even necessary — it isn’t for those companies that budget for and schedule events annually) and scheduling early. In fact, the earlier you schedule the less chance late-in-the-calendar-year activities and priorities will get in the way.

Here are four suggestions to make your life easier. Take them one at a time. Their affect is cumulative.

1. Call or email VSA today and schedule this year’s event. Don’t put it off any longer. VSA will immediately take the load off your mind and shoulders.
2. Schedule next year’s event. Might sound crazy, but think about it. If it’s on the calendar now you won’t have to worry about it next year. And if the date(s) have to change, VSA will do everything it can to work with you on preferred rescheduling.
3. If you’re not already doing it, make your annual employee vaccination event a permanent budget item. A permanent budget item gains stature. It becomes more important — a part of corporate culture. When that happens, companies get very good at wringing out every last drop of value — things like employee satisfaction leading to productivity gains and improved employee morale and job satisfaction. Employees want to be valued. This is one very good way to show them you do.
4. If your company doesn’t already sponsor an employee health fair, consider expanding your vaccination event into a robust, thoroughly planned health fair program. HFA will walk you through the process and show you what can be done to generate meaningful bottom-line impact.

There's a bit of time-tested wisdom that says good things only get better with time. HFA's Online Appointment Scheduling software is one good example.

More and more HR managers are electing to implement the HFA system. Here are some of the reasons why:

• Easy event creation and management
• Easy appointment scheduling and cancellation
• Customized presentation using company logo and information
• Individual, personalized sign-up site
• Dynamic, real time event status updating
• Simplified, user-friendly interface
• IT security features
• Integration with MS Outlook
• Employee wait list feature
• Employee reminder feature
• Scalability for high volume events

According to one corporate convert to HFA's Online Appointment Scheduling system software, "In a business where promised performance seldom lives up to the hype, this one's a keeper. Setting up and managing our annual employee health fair has gone from shipwreck to smooth sailing in a single move."

People with carotid artery disease are at a higher risk of stroke. Carotid artery disease is characterized by carotid stenosis, or narrowing of the carotid artery, and is a very significant risk factor for stroke.

An ultrasound is currently the best available screening study used for identifying carotid artery narrowing. The test is non-invasive, painless and uses sound waves to image the arteries in order to assess the degree of narrowing.