title: Virulent influenza fills EDs across the country, prompting hospitals to launch emergency plans.
abstract: Hospitals across the country have been straining to meet high demand from patients exhibiting symptoms of influenza. In early January, the mayor of Boston declared a public health emergency, as hospitals there reported a huge increase in the number of flu patients over last year's mild season. Public health officials in New York also declared a public health emergency, as many hospitals across the state launched emergency flu surge plans. In Illinois, as many as 11 hospitals went on diversion on January 7 because demand from flu patients was so intense. By January 13, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston had already identified 618 cases of the flu and had admitted 196 patients.This prompted the hospital to initiate its flu surge plan, which extended the hours of primary care practices to take pressure off the ED. In New York, more than 15,000 cases of flu had been reported by January 10, nearly a three-fold increase over last year, and hospitalizations from the flu were up by 169%. To meet high demand from flu patients seeking care in the ED, some community hospitals have leveraged personnel from other hospital departments to perform non-clinical tasks such preparing rooms and bringing in meals for busy providers. To limit transmission of the flu, EDs are providing patients with masks, and they are scheduling extra staff so that wait times don't become excessive.
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006752:Hospital Planning; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology