Dive Brief:
- Hospitals are beginning to brace themselves for the upcoming flu season, which may be more problematic than normal this year with the looming fear of Ebola. Dozens of Ebola false alarms have been reported nationwide and doctors fear there may be even more on the way as the early stages of the disease poses symptoms like fever and body aches—similar to the flu.
- Hospitals are concerned that emergency rooms could be flooded as people seek to be tested for Ebola out of fear. Hospitals have a rapid flu test that can confirm the condition in minutes and many are creating protocols to screen for Ebola. Many are limiting testing for Ebola to people who have had direct contact with the disease or recently traveled to Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone.
- The severity of the flu season and the potential spread of Ebola will be important factors in ER overcrowding. More than 200,000 people are hospitalized due to the flu annually and flu-related deaths can range anywhere from 3,000 up to 49,000 a year.
Dive Insight:
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Pittsburgh, told Reuters Health that hospitals will likely be seeing more cases of the "worried well"—healthy people afraid they have a devastating disease.
Though the nature of Ebola is a totally new beast, hospitals should be somewhat prepared for the potential influx. The flu season hit with a vengeance in 2013, and hospitals across the country were forced to request that patients bypass their packed ERs when possible. The Huffington Post reported that year that the Chicago area saw as many as eight hospitals on bypass at the time, while some ERs had three-hour waits.
That same year in New Jersey, hospitals were using waivers that allowed them to exceed bed capacity and patient staff ratios in order to treat more patients. Some were implementing plans used during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, like treating patients in conference rooms or other areas outside of the ER.
In Burlington, MA, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center has formed a partnership with CareWell Urgent Care, where they can send patients that are not critically ill—like those with the flu—to reduce their overcrowding.