What Hospitals Should Do to Prepare for an Influenza Pandemic

Abstract

This article offers recommendations on what hospitals should do to prepare for an influenza pandemic and proposes specific actions and priorities for the purpose of making the discussion of hospital pandemic preparedness issues more operationally useful.

Influenza Preparedness in Nebraska Assisted Living Facilities

“…4,6,8 To combat staffing issues, most ALFs (63%) planned to extend the hours of current staff, while some felt they would be receiving help from nonclinical staff or volunteers. Volunteers will likely be a source of some aid, but they will be spread out among other competing organizations and subject to absenteeism.…”

“…The preparedness of these facilities will greatly influence the ability of the healthcare system to handle a large-scale influenza pandemic. [5][6][7][8][9] Assisted living is essentially the bridge between a skilled nursing home that attends to residents who require a high level of care and those who live on their own in complete autonomy. There are approximately 38,000 assisted living facilities in the U.S. 10 The chief roles of an ALF, as defined by AARP, are ''meeting a resident's scheduled and unscheduled needs, maximizing a resident's independence, privacy, autonomy, and dignity, and minimizing the need for a resident to move when he or she needs change.''…”

The Current Status of Planning for Pandemic Influenza and Implications for Health Care Planning in the United States

“…The Center for Biosecurity of University of Pittsburg Medical Center further concludes that hospital preparedness is seriously underfunded, because the projected need is nearly $1 million per hospital (table 4). The Center for Biosecurity of University of Pittsburg Medical Center recommends that hospitals undertake the following actions [12]:…”

Optimization models for patient allocation during a pandemic influenza outbreak.

“…A software program called FluSurge was developed by the CDC to calculate the potential impact of a pandemic on hospital resources such as staffed beds (both overall and ICUIntensive Care Unit) and ventilators (Zhang et ai., 2006). The results from FluSurge indicate that hospitals would be severely stressed in the moderate 1968-like scenario, and completely overwhelmed in the case of a severe 1918-like pandemic (Toner & Waldhorn, 2006). Toner and Waldhorn (2006) state that during a pandemic influenza outbreak, some key preparedness tasks cannot be accomplished by hospitals individually, and it is necessary that regional resource allocation, patient redistribution, and use of alternative care sites all require collaboration among hospitals both in planning and in response.…”

“…The results from FluSurge indicate that hospitals would be severely stressed in the moderate 1968-like scenario, and completely overwhelmed in the case of a severe 1918-like pandemic (Toner & Waldhorn, 2006). Toner and Waldhorn (2006) state that during a pandemic influenza outbreak, some key preparedness tasks cannot be accomplished by hospitals individually, and it is necessary that regional resource allocation, patient redistribution, and use of alternative care sites all require collaboration among hospitals both in planning and in response. The research presented in this dissertation develops optimization models to be used by decision makers (e.g.…”