title: Pandemic management in a pediatric hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe our experiences in the management of the second wave of influenza A H1N1 (pH1N1) pandemic in a tertiary-care children's hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  An autoethnographic study of the pandemic planning and management committee members involved in managing the second wave of pH1N1 was conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Staffing, surge capacity, communications and emergency operations planning by adding leaders of frontline workers and other key operational roles to the incident management team, and creating a tactical response team emerged as important factors in pandemic management in our hospital. The emergency department visits increased by 50%, necessitating increased staffing of the emergency department. Communications using existing chains of command had to be used to reach frontline staff during the pandemic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Incident management teams managing pandemics and other disasters have to be dynamic and create tactical teams to ensure implementation and facilitate bidirectional communication with frontline workers.
authors: Division of Emergency Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada. savithiri.ratnapalan@sickkids.ca
authors: Savithiri
authors: S
authors: Ratnapalan
authors: Maria Athina Tina
authors: MA
authors: Martimianakis
authors: Justine H
authors: JH
authors: Cohen-Silver
authors: Bruce
authors: B
authors: Minnes
authors: Daune
authors: D
authors: Macgregor
authors: Upton
authors: U
authors: Allen
authors: Susan E
authors: SE
authors: Richardson
authors: Jeremy N
authors: JN
authors: Friedman
authors: Cindy
authors: C
authors: Bruce-Barrett
authors: Lutfi
authors: L
authors: Haj-Assaad
authors: Judy
authors: J
authors: Noordermeer
authors: Denis
authors: D
authors: Daneman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006285:Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D058873:Pandemics; D063545:Personal Narratives as Topic; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data