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Working Sick

Photo Illustration by Kathy Waters

Depending on the season's severity, about 200,000 people end up spending 3.1 million days hospitalized with flu or its complications each year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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A.J. Hostetler

Published: January 20, 2008

When cold and flu season strikes, auto-shop manager Todd Meredith's hands may end up in an engine to get a customer's car back on the road.

The commissioner of the Central Virginia Basketball Officials Association, Ed Smith, may be forced to send fewer officials to a high school game. Health-care workers dedicated to patient care may have to be told to go home.

Many employees try to work through the aches and pains of cold, flu and other seasonal respiratory ailments. Some are laid low for days with coughing, fever or other symptoms.

Flu, especially, is nothing to sneeze at economically. Although most of the 24.7 million cases recover completely in one to two weeks, some develop serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses, such as pneumonia. (The common cold is not a reportable disease, so public-health officials don't estimate economic impact.)

"This is a big economic burden," said Dr. Frank Tortorella, who as Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center's director of employee health services oversees the hospital's annual employee flu-vaccination drive.

Depending on the season's severity, about 200,000 people end up spending 3.1 million days hospitalized with flu or its complications each year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 36,000 annually die of flu and its complications.

A case of flu can cost as little as $3 for over-the-counter medication to hundreds of dollars for outpatient doctor's visits and tests, depending on the patient's age. Hospitalization costs can add up to more than $81,000 for a young child, the CDC estimates based on the country's 2003 population.

Some area companies try to lessen the problem by offering employees free flu shots. Dominion Virginia Power also sends its 10,282 Virginia employees information on how to prevent the spread of illness by proper hand-washing.

Although more than half the 1,600 people working at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond get their annual flu shot free, those who do come down with the disease can get medical attention from the bank's on-site health-care clinic.

Such preventive-care pushes began as a way to rein in skyrocketing health-care costs, but when companies examined the issue, they recognized that lost productivity is flu's true cost, said Robert Trumble, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who specializes in human-resources management.

Providing flu vaccines and health information is catching on among businesses, especially insurance companies, as a way to cut costs and avoid losing productivity, he said.

"Employers want to avoid down time," Trumble said. "Savvy employers see that this is really a good area to explore, to put some money into."

Small companies that might not be able to afford to provide free vaccines can still help their bottom line by encouraging employees to find flu-shot clinics or by providing access to health information, Trumble said.

"We have 10 employees, so if one or two people call in sick, it definitely is a hard hit," said Meredith, the shop manager at Leete Tire & Auto in downtown Richmond. "Typically, we just suck it up and work harder."

Meredith, who has had the flu twice in the past year, said he'll tell those employees who come in sick, particularly those with fever, to go home.

"A lot of times, we'll have two or three heads together on one car . . . and you're in a close-knit area, so it's definitely a contagious situation," he said. "I try to keep it from spreading through the shop if at all possible."

Smith said he, too, juggles staff during cold and flu season.

When the schedule is tight, he sometimes asks schools about cutting back from three officials to two, but he tries to avoid doing that to a school more than once a season.

"Our officials are more subject to catching a germ because of the kids and the [school] atmosphere," he said.

Kay King, senior vice president for leadership development at the YMCA of Greater Richmond, said members at the 15 area branches help themselves and others stay healthy by cleaning the mats, weights, treadmills and other equipment before and after each use.

"We are definitely more conscious [of the spread of disease] at this time of year," she said.

With their work, dental offices "can't afford to make judgments" about a patient's health, said dentist Al Stenger. Dentists and hygienists take preventive measures against infection, such as wearing gloves, masks and goggles, with patients every day.

Tortorella said that with the general public battling colds, sinusitis, bronchitis and flulike ailments, hospitalized patients might tell their friends and family to stay home.

He suggests that they instead say, "Send me a [get-well] card."

A.J. Hostetler is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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