Allina News

[Star Tribune, Jan. 3, 2010] The pandemic of 2009 wasn’t as bad as health officials feared, but it hit the young harder and may be only in a lull.
On Kris Ehresmann’s 2009 calendar, April 23 is marked with two events: “Get haircut. Pandemic begins.”
That was the day Ehresmann, head of Minnesota’s state vaccine program, learned [...]

[Northfield News, Dec. 22, 2009] Local health care providers are opening their H1N1 vaccine supplies to the general population following new recommendations from the state.
Northfield’s Allina Medical Clinic will offer the vaccine to the public, Clinic Manager Barb Barlau said, as will the Northfield Hospital and Clinics, said spokesman Scott Richardson on [...]

[Northfield News, Dec. 18, 2009] Local health officials said a recalled batch of H1N1 vaccinations for children was not distributed in Northfield. The 800,000 pediatric immunization doses recalled by manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur were found through testing to lose potency in storage, but were not distributed to the Northfield Hospital and Clinics or Allina Medical Clinic [...]

[Allina Newsroom, Dec. 17, 2009] Allina clinics, including Aspen Medical Group, Quello Clinic and Allina Medical Clinic, are now making H1N1 flu vaccine available to all its patients provided that individual clinics have adequate supply of H1N1 vaccine on hand.

[KARE11, Dec. 16, 2009] The number of H1N1 cases in Minnesota may continue to drop, but experts still recommend people exercise caution over the holidays.
“If you have respiratory symptoms — cough, sore throat, a temperature of over 101 – you ought to be distancing yourself from everyone, particularly people who are vulnerable,” said Dr. Frank Rhame, [...]

[Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dec. 6, 2009] In a small fraction of children and young adults, the H1N1 virus is unexpectedly deadly. For unknown reasons some perfectly healthy patients end up drowning in their own fluids.
Kim Lange’s son was still coherent when the doctor said it was time to put him on a ventilator. He was [...]

[KARE11 News, Nov. 24, 2009] It’s as much a part of Thanksgiving as the turkey—the travel. But this year’s trip seems to pack an extra punch: the threat of picking up H1N1 on board a crowded plane.
“A sick person should not be around other people,” said Dr. Frank Rhame, an Infectious Disease Expert with Allina Hospitals. [...]

[Pioneer press, Nov. 25, 2009] A continued decrease in reported H1N1 flu cases and an increase in vaccine stores will allow most people up to 24 years old to qualify for the vaccine, state health officials said Tuesday. The new vaccination guidelines will allow an estimated 2.7 million Minnesotan to qualify for the vaccine, compared [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, Nov. 17, 2009] Most Minnesota counties now have enough doses to begin offering very limited public vaccination clinics targeting kids age nine and younger. For most parents, these will be the first openly publicized H1N1 clinics since supplies of the vaccine started trickling in to the state more than a month ago.
Allina [...]

[The Annandale Advocate, Nov. 17, 2009] The long awaited H1N1 vaccine has arrived in Minnesota’s Wright County clinics, but it’s not available to everyone.
All Allina clinics, including Annandale, have a limited supply of H1N1 vaccine for pregnant women, children 6 months through 4 years, and people ages 5 to 18 who have compromised conditions, said [...]

[New Ulm Journal, Nov. 9, 2009] New Ulm Medical Center (NUMC) will conduct an H1N1 flu vaccine clinic on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009 at 5 p.m. The clinic will go until 8 p.m. or until the supply of vaccine has been exhausted.
The clinic will be held in the third floor hospital auditorium. Please use the [...]

[Star Tribune, Nov. 7, 2009] For months, travelers have been zooming through the skies, locked into a tight space with strangers, without benefit of an H1N1 vaccination. That situation probably won’t change before Thanksgiving, historically the busiest travel season of the year. The Minnesota Department of Health reports that the majority of doses of the [...]

[WCCO-TV, Nov. 8, 2009] Allina Hospitals & Clinics Vice President for Safety, Judith Napier, part of Allina’s H1N1 planning team, was interviewed on WCCO 4 News Sunday Morning  by Esme Murphy on the elusive H1N1 vaccine and the challenges the virus poses to health care organizations. Watch the interview at wcco.com or click below.

[Star Tribune, Nov. 6, 2009] For parents of children who have received their first H1N1 shots, the frustrations may not be over. Clinics are warning they may not have enough vaccine on hand to give booster shots exactly on schedule — 28 days after the first dose.
Federal officials have said children 9 and younger need [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, Oct. 28, 2009] It appears a lot of people with the H1N1 flu do not experience a fever, and the absence of a fever could mean they are not taking enough precautions to prevent transmitting the virus to others. In Minnesota, the no-fever issue has been a hot topic among some health [...]

[Owatonna People's Press, Nov. 1, 2009] It’s time for a little common sense. In its most recently released statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that influenza activity continued to increase in the United States. The conclusion that we ought to draw is that the H1N1 virus is real [...]

[WCCO-TV, Oct. 30, 2009] For the first time, Minnesota hospitals are banding together to prevent the spread of the H1N1 flu to patients and visitors by increasing restrictions for those coming in. Most hospitals are limiting the number of visitors to 3 or 4. There are cut backs on visiting hours and new rules for [...]

[Star Tribune, Oct. 30, 2009] Starting Monday, children under age 5 will be barred from visiting patients at most Twin Cities area hospitals. The new limits were announced at a joint news conference Friday, as hospitals increased efforts to keep patients and visitors from infecting one another with the H1N1 flu.
The new restrictions, which [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, Oct. 28, 2009] It appears a lot of people with the H1N1 flu do not experience a fever, and the absence of a fever could mean they are not taking enough precautions to prevent transmitting the virus to others.
Fever and flu go hand-in-hand – at least that’s the case most of the [...]

[WCCO-TV, Oct. 24, 2009]  One Twin Cities medical group  is now Tweeting updates about H1N1 news. Allina Hospitals & Clinics is using online social networking to keep the community informed. See the story here on wcco.com or click the video link below.

[WCCO Radio, Ot. 19, 2009] Concern about spreading the flu to newborns and young patients means visitors will be screened for the disease.  Visitors at all ten Allina Hospitals are being asked if they have any symptoms of either H1N1 or seasonal flu. Read the whole story at the WCCO Radio web site.

[WCCO Radio, Oct. 20, 2009] Allina Hospitals & Clinics has implemented a new visitor policy in response to the spread of the H1N1 virus. Allina Infection Control Practitioner Cindy Larson was interviewed on WCCO’s Mondale and Jones radio program about the new policy.

[Star Tribune, Oct. 19, 2009] With the recent spread of the H1N1 flu virus, several Twin Cities hospitals and clinics have enacted or are considering restrictions on visitors who are coming to see patients.
Allina Hospitals and Clinics are requiring anybody entering birth centers and pediatric units at 10 hospitals in Minnesota and western Wisconsin to sign [...]

[KMSP-TV, Oct. 17, 2009] Allina Hospitals and Clinics telling people if you want to visit its hospital birth centers and pediatrics unit, you will be screened for the H1N1 virus. Allina says the new policy is designed to protect new mothers, pediatric patients and newborn babies from exposure to the virus. Read the full story [...]

[Allina Newsroom, Oct. 17, 2009] Allina Hospitals & Clinics has placed limits on visitation to its hospital birth centers and pediatrics units due the H1N1 virus.
Effective immediately, these new limitations have been placed on visitation to Allina hospital birth centers and pediatrics units:
•    Visiting hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
•    Visitors must sign in [...]