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Hospital Capacity during an Influenza Pandemic—Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Elissa Meites*
Affiliation:
Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Daniel Farias
Affiliation:
Hospital National Profesor Alejandro Posadas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lucrecia Raffo
Affiliation:
Hospital National Profesor Alejandro Posadas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rachel Albalak
Affiliation:
Influenza Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Oreste Luis Carlino
Affiliation:
National Ministry of Health of Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
L. Clifford McDonald
Affiliation:
Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Marc-Alain Widdowson
Affiliation:
Influenza Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
*
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS E-2, Atlanta, GA 30333 ([email protected])

Abstract

At a major referral hospital in the Southern Hemisphere, the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic brought increased critical care demand and more unscheduled nursing absences. Because of careful preparedness planning, including rapid expansion and redistribution of the numbers of available beds and staff, hospital surge capacity was not exceeded.

Type
Concise Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2011

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