Medical Care Capacity for Influenza Outbreaks, Los Angeles

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Emerg Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Glaser, Carol A. ; Gilliam, Sabrina ; Thompson, William W. ; Dassey, David E. ; Waterman, Stephen H. ; Saruwatari, Mitchell ; Shapiro, Stanley ; Fukuda, Keiji
• Description:
  In December 1997, media reported hospital overcrowding and "the worst [flu epidemic] in the past two decades" in Los Angeles County (LAC). We found that rates of pneumonia and influenza deaths, hospitalizations, and claims were substantially higher for the 1997-98 influenza season than the previous six seasons. Hours of emergency medical services (EMS) diversion (when emergency departments could not receive incoming patients) peaked during the influenza seasons studied; the number of EMS diversion hours per season also increased during the seasons 1993-94 to 1997-98, suggesting a decrease in medical care capacity during influenza seasons. Over the seven influenza seasons studied, the number of licensed beds decreased 12%, while the LAC population increased 5%. Our findings suggest that the capacity of health-care systems to handle patient visits during influenza seasons is diminishing.
• Subjects:
  Disease Outbreaks Emergency Medical Services Female Hospital Bed Capacity Humans Influenza, Human Male Patient Transfer Pneumonia Research Retrospective Studies Seasons

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• Source:
  Emerg Infect Dis. 8(6):569-574.
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Los Angeles, CA
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  8
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:c71a689b5f35409e2ee5b4bf845b778f7c28abc72d7f1f89750a73857647cc22
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/13844/cdc_13844_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 389.49 KB ]