Hospital Viability During a Pandemic Influenza Outbreak

<p>In the past 8 years since September 11 many improvements have been made to the National response capabilities; however the all hazards approach is still inadequate to respond to a moderate pandemic outbreak. Shortcomings of our fragile healthcare framework combined with the prolonged duration of a pandemic make it difficult to prepare for such a catastrophic disaster. Therefore the purpose of this study was to investigate the factors ensuring hospital viability during a pandemic influenza outbreak. To accomplish this the study employed a comparative case study methodology utilizing four prominent emergency management events: 1918 Spanish flu (H1N1); 2003 SARS outbreak; 2005 Hurricane Katrina and the 2009 Swine flu (H1N1) outbreak for the purpose of finding common measures enabling a hospital to mitigate prepare respond and recover from a pandemic. After reviewing the case study literature 117 viability measures were identified. Furthermore the concepts from the literature review coupled with the case study results led to discovery of seven hospital viability measures that will assist in mitigating a moderate pandemic which are: maintaining a hospital's critical axis staffing security logistics surge capacity public affairs and emergency operations planning. Focusing preparedness efforts in these areas will provide protection from the next pandemic.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>