title: Be prepared. When a virus outbreak hits, hospital leaders must ready more beds, educate patients, and keep staff in the loop.
abstract: It is critical that hospitals and health systems can quickly activate plans to increase bed capacity and stage screening areas in the event of a disease outbreak. Another piece of a hospital's emergency plan should include posting information on the homepage for patients. Some organizations have implemented tracking and bed management systems to provide clinicians with better visibility on what space is available for triage. Communication with staff is crucial during an emergency. Whether it is conducted by meetings or through an Intranet site, clinicians must be kept in the loop at all times. Many states require hospitals to report infectious disease data to county and state health departments within a certain amount of time. Information that is reported electronically can be transmitted quickly and accurately, and used for analysis by public health organizations like the CDC.
authors.forename: Kate Huvane
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Gamble
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006740:Hospital Administrators; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010353:Patient Education as Topic