Pandemic management in a pediatric hospital

Abstract

Objectives: 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.