Protect your employees, your customers,
and your brand with
Zero Hour Health

A healthy workforce boosts productivity, lowers absenteeism, fosters a positive work environment, and most importantly, lowers the risk to your company's brand and reputation.

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Trusted by the top names in business + hospitality

Health Crisis Prevention + Management
For Modern Businesses

Whether you have a growing hospitality group or a major nationwide concept, it’s imperative that you protect your reputation and brand loyalty from illness, outbreaks, and other health crises.

Zero Hour Health’s team of advisors will help you prevent and manage your risk so your team can focus on growing the business.

Advisory from the most knowledgeable industry experts, 24/7/365.

Whether it’s navigating a foodborne illness outbreak, receiving guidance on best practices with your local health department, or general questions about your employees’ health, we’re here to keep you, your staff, and your business safe.
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Detecting and preventing illnesses, before they go public.

The best way to stop a crisis is to prevent it from becoming one in the first place. We’ll help you create a culture of safe working, detect problematic illnesses before they spread, and, most importantly, keep your business out of the news.
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Protecting the most important asset in your businesses: your brand.

An outbreak is one of the few crises that can permanently damage a brand. From local news, to the nightly news, to the trading floors, your reputation is the foundation of your business and its value. Protecting that asset is a top priority.
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Screening and assisting the hiring process for at-risk positions.

Whether you need to do physical examinations to ensure a prospective employee can do the job, or your industry regulations call for a battery of exams, we streamline this process and handle it for every step of the way. Save time, hire quicker, and protect yourself against workers' comp claims.
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A suite of services to support every aspect of your operations.

This is just a core breakdown of the main services we provide to our clients. We build highly customized solutions to support any need you have.

ZHH Pro

ZHH Pro is our industry-best advisory service. We tailor our support to solve your most pressing needs, whether you've got 6 locations or 600 locations. We can provide 24/7/365, high-level clinical support to keep your business running.
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Wellness Checks

The single best way to prevent illness in the workplace is to prevent sick employees from showing up in the first place. ZHH Wellness Checks are the best solution to identify and assess potentially sick employees.
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Vaccination Programs

From Flu to Hep A, vaccinations are a vital part of keeping your workforce healthy. We help businesses identify employee immunization history, track their records, and facilitate vaccinations both on-site and off.
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Exams & Regulatory Testing

Ensure that potential employees are fit to perform their roles safely and effectively using our industry-best pre-employment programs. We help employers maintain compliance with stringent industry standards and regulations without adding friction to the hiring process.
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Inbox
January 17, 2025
Wildfires, Noro & Red No. 3

Health News:

  • The CDC has asked hospitals to fast-track H5N1 testing for all patients hospitalized for flu A within the first 24 hours of their stay. (CDC)
  • The FDA banned red dye No. 3 in foods, decades after it was found to cause cancer in rats. (STAT) 
  • Flu, COVID, and noro are still high, while RSV is moderate; The Twin Cities area saw its highest hospitalizations for flu in the past 4 years. (YLE, MPR)
  • The FDA is investigating two new outbreaks of Listeria, each with 30+ cases and unknown sources. (FDA)
  • Air quality has improved in L.A., but ash and dust continue to be a problem, and health officials encourage use of N95 masks. (NY Times)
  • The Boulder County Health Dept. is warning customers who drank fresh juices from 12/30 through 1/5 at a local Mexican restaurant that they may have been exposed to Hepatitis A. (NBC 9)
  • The WHO alerted to a Marburg outbreak in Tanzania with 8 deaths, but Tanzania denies the outbreak. (Reuters)
  • Calorie labels in restaurants have limited impact on food choices, with about a 1.8% calorie reduction - about two almonds in a 600-calorie meal. (Bloomberg)
  • A new storage technique could eliminate the need to keep vaccines and medications cold, which would reduce costs and get life-saving meds to difficult-to-reach places. (Nature)
  • 3 cruises have had GI illness outbreaks this month, including 60 people with norovirus on a cruise out of Miami. (CDC)
  • Drug makers hiked the prices of 575 drugs in the first days of 2025 - an average of 4%, which is actually less than the standard 10% hike. (NPR) 
  • An international committee says there’s a better way than BMI to measure obesity - suggesting measuring waist circumference or comparing it to hips or height instead. (NPR)

Mental Health & Substance Use News:

  • A Massachusetts school district is adding naloxone (Narcan) training to its 11th and 12th grade health classes alongside CPR and first aid. (Herald News) 
  • The DEA and HHS finalized a rule allowing providers to prescribe buprenorphine, the gold-standard medication for opioid-use disorder, through telehealth. (Roll Call)

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or need help, call or text 988.

Best Questions:

My employee says they were diagnosed with norovirus at the urgent care, but they don’t have any kind of note or test. What should I do?

This is very common, so the first step is not to panic! Noro is at record high levels this year, so your employee likely does have vomiting and diarrhea. What probably happened here is that they went to the urgent care, who took one look at them and knew right away that it was (key word here) probably norovirus. In most cases, urgent cares don’t test for noro - they just tell the patient that it’s likely norovirus, give them an IV with anti-nausea medication in it, and send them home. Your employee heard them say “norovirus” and assumes that’s a formal diagnosis. The difference is key, though - noro is a reportable illness, which means any lab that tests for it has to report a positive result to your local health department. In true lab-confirmed cases, you should be prepared for a visit from the health department. That’s probably not going to happen here unless the employee follows up with positive test paperwork. We’ve gotten a half dozen calls about cases like this one this week, and only one was actually lab-confirmed. What you should do is a full noro sanitizing protocol, especially if the employee worked recently. Use a noro-approved sanitizer (not QUAT) with a focus on high-traffic touchpoints like faucets, sinks, and handles. Remind sick employees to stay out a full 48 hours after their vomiting and diarrhea stop, and do not underestimate the power of handwashing!

Source: CDC

What products still contain Red Dye No. 3? Are other food colorings on the chopping block? 

Lots of manufacturers have actually been removing Red Dye No. 3 (and replacing it with Red Dye No. 40) for years. It’s been banned from cosmetics and non-oral medications for years because of a study nearly 30 years ago that showed it caused cancer in rats. As Valentine’s Day approaches, it’s worth noting that Brach’s conversation hearts (and candy corn, if you’re still working through your Halloween candy) contain Red 3. Other products with Red 3 include certain decorating icings, including Betty Crocker brand, flavored milks, ice creams, and nutrition shakes. For restaurants, keep an eye on any red icing you might use for cakes (Betty Crocker brand, for example) and maraschino cherries, though most brands have switched to 40. You can check the back of any product for the ingredient list, which will include the specific dyes used. Retailers and restaurants aren’t actually responsible for making any changes - manufacturers have two years to make the switch. But there’s some possibility that consumers will be more aware of dyes and ask about ingredients due to the publicity of this ban and increased awareness of the risks. As a reminder, Red 3 hasn’t actually been linked to increased cancer risk in humans yet, but since dyes aren’t necessary in our food or drugs, they fall under a special rule that forces the FDA to be more cautious if there’s a possibility of risk. There are still eight synthetic dyes that are allowed in the U.S., some of which might be under scrutiny in the coming years. Major companies, including General Mills and Kellogg’s, previously vowed to remove artificial dyes from their products, but the self-determined deadlines for that have passed, and both still use artificial coloring.  

Sources: AP, YLE, Forbes

Best Read:

What Wildfires and Pandemics Have in Common 

From the ZHH Team

L.A. is still burning. It’s an unprecedented climate disaster in the U.S. It hits home because everyone knows someone, or at least of someone, in L.A. Each day, we look at the fire maps, which show burn areas, evacuation zones, and fire weather predictions. The areas at risk have one crucial thing in common: they’re on the edges of the city, where urban areas nestle against wilderness. These beautiful areas are why places like the Pacific Palisades and Altadena are so beloved, with gorgeous views and access to hiking trails. It’s also why they’re at such high risk - fires start in the forests but can spread down to the homes below. 

This is where it becomes impossible to ignore the parallels between wildfires and pandemics. 

Like wildfires, pandemics often start where humans live on the edge of forests. Novel pathogens spread from bats, rats, monkeys, or other critters to the humans that are now their neighbors. A man eats a fruit that a bat previously munched on, a child touches a dead animal they find on the path, a family forgets to replace the cover on their water tank, and it becomes contaminated with bat droppings. Especially when humans encroach on land that used to be wild, the risk for spillover events increases. This is how Ebola and Marburg outbreaks started in places like Guinea, Uganda, DRC, and Angola, but also mirrors the origin stories of Nipah virus in Malaysia and Hendra in Australia. 

When humans live on the edge of forests, and especially when they encroach on areas that used to be wild, the risk of spillover events - and wildfires - increases. 

‍Living on the edge has always been a draw for humans. But it’s also where we come closest to the dangers that wild places hold—sparks that can ignite a blaze or pathogens that can fuel a pandemic. If we’re going to make these edges home, we need to be smarter about how we live there—so the next spark or spillover doesn’t become a disaster.

Sources:
ProPublica, NY Times

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"When any potential health crisis arises, we turn to Zero Hour Health to help coordinate the clinical resources necessary- testing, confirming diagnoses and vaccinating employees.  Their relationships with health departments have proven critical to Texas Roadhouse.  ZHH is an invaluable partner to our brand and we can't imagine operating without them."

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Every company and organization has factors that make their program different, but Zero Hour Health works with your team to tailor a program that solves all of your pain points.
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