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:
  • Research
  • Disease Outbreaks
  • Emergency Medical Services
  • Female
  • Hospital Bed Capacity
  • Humans
  • Influenza, Human
  • Male
  • Patient Transfer
  • Pneumonia
  More +
• 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
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/13844/cdc_13844_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 389.49 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:c71a689b5f35409e2ee5b4bf845b778f7c28abc72d7f1f89750a73857647cc22