This protocol and toolkit is intended for long-term care communities only, whether regulated under the Hospital Act or the Community Care and Assisted Living Act.
Updated January 30, 2025
This RI toolkit was developed by Fraser Health Public Health in consultation with the Fraser Health Long-Term Care (LTC) Infection Prevention and Control Program.
This protocol and toolkit is only intended for LTC. Some of the tools and resources are shared across assisted living settings.
Assisted living providers are to refer to the Assisted Living viral respiratory (RI) and gastrointestinal illness (GI) toolkit (AL toolkit). For information and resources on gastrointestinal illnesses (GI), refer to the GI toolkit.
For communities of care, a viral respiratory illness in one area may affect individuals in other areas of the community. Follow the direction and recommendations from Public Health and/or your Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner if concerned about potential spread of viral respiratory illness from one area to another within your care community.
Learn more about notifying Public Health after hours, on weekends and statutory holidays.
What is the respiratory illness protocol and toolkit
This protocol consists of checklists for influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory viral illness and outbreaks (e.g. RSV) and a flowchart. Each of the checklists link to relevant tools in the toolkit.
Print the respiratory illness toolkit
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pdf2.65 MB
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After hours, on weekends and statutory holidays, the care community is to contact the on call medical health officer (MHO) at 604-527-4806 if:
- The care community with no influenza outbreaks has a new resident influenza case or,
- The care community has two or more resident influenza cases and meet the influenza outbreak definition or,
- The care community has concerns about the severity or the rate of increase in respiratory illness cases in their community.
After calling the MHO on call, send Tool 27 to Public Health using the routine process.
If none of the above situations apply, continue to report/contact to Public Health daily as per the routine process outlined on Tool 27: Resident illness reporting and tracking form.
If questions or concerns arise from a Care Community, please contact the Communicable Disease Nursing Team at 604-507-5471 (Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.).