Pandemic Management in a Pediatric Hospital

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.