Hospital Preparedness for Pandemic Influenza

Abstract

Center convened a meeting of senior government officials, hospital leaders, clinicians, and public health officials on Hospital Preparedness for Pandemic Influenza in Baltimore, Maryland. A list of meeting participants is provided in Appendix 1. Individual comments were not for attribution so as to foster a frank and open discussion.The purpose of the meeting was to examine ways the U.S. healthcare community, and especially hospitals, can prepare to care for the large number of patients that would be expected during an influenza pandemic. At the meeting, the group was asked to discuss the serious challenges hospitals and communities will confront, to try to reach accord on what high-level solutions should be pursued, and to examine actions and next steps that the group or others might take to bring about such changes.To structure the meeting conversation, the staff of the Center for Biosecurity presented its initial assessment of the issues. The assessment was informed by analyzing pre-meeting discussions with the group and other government and clinical leaders and by reviewing information from a broad range of government and industry reports and peer-reviewed literature. This meeting report synopsizes the presentations given at the meeting and the group's discussions.Initially, a vision of success in hospital preparedness was proposed: U.S. hospitals, individually and jointly, will be able to provide medical care for flu victims while maintaining other essential medical services in the community during and after a pandemic.

Major Issues and Challenges of Influenza Pandemic Preparedness in Developing Countries

“…In the United States alone, an estimated 18-42 million outpatient visits and 314,000-734,000 hospitalizations could occur (6). The surge capacity in healthcare systems will likely be insuffi cient to cope with this rise in patient numbers, even in industrialized countries (17,18). Healthcare resources such as the number of physicians, nurses, and available hospital beds are limited in developing countries.…”

Community Engagement: Leadership Tool for Catastrophic Health Events

“…5,111 Hospitals will not be able to operate effectively in the face of labor shortages that result from workers falling ill, having to care for sick family, and/or being concerned about bringing home contagion. Hospitals may facilitate transmission of the flu virus within their walls, due to infected patients converging on them.…”

“…111,112 At the peak of the pandemic, hospitals will need to cancel elective surgeries and discharge the least ill to recover elsewhere. Today's so-called "elective" procedures, however, include cancer surgeries, angioplasties, and aneurysm surgeries without which many patients may die.…”

Pandemic flu: current threat and development of a preparedness framework

“…Hospitals should also participate in regional planning for the medical care of flu patients, since hospitals, individually and jointly, must be able to provide care for flu victims, while maintaining other essential medical services, during and after a pandemic. In addition, every hospital should stockpile, or assure access to a stockpile of, personal protective equipment for a sustained time period-perhaps eight weeks (Toner et al, [16]). …”