Philadelphia's Pandemic Influenza Planning Guidance for Healthcare Institutions addresses the needs and situations that may be experienced by hospitals during a pandemic. The guidance describes planning activities in several areas, including surveillance; external and internal communications; education and training; clinical triage, evaluation, admissions, and inpatient care; facility access planning; infection control; occupational health; vaccination and antivirals; surge capacity; and mortuary services.
The guidance represents a collaboration between the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and several healthcare facilities and academic medical centers. Work groups members involved in drafting the guidance included professionals in infection control, emergency medicine, bioethics, OSHA, human resources, and Medicare & Medicaid Services. The collaborative team identified hospital visitors and professional students as an at-risk group within a hospital environment, and much of the information in this guide addresses the protection of these groups. One of the most practical parts of the guide-a grid with all recommendations from the text delineated by pandemic severity phase-is located in the appendices. The appendices also include tools such as an altered standards of care summary for staffing, supplies, patient care, and alternate facilities; a summary of diagnostic tests and rapid antigen test utility tables; an influenza-focused history and physical triage form; a hospital crisis communication plan; and educational materials from CDC.
One reviewer called the guidance noteworthy, because it provides a regional model of comprehensive community and hospital preparedness. The reviewer noted that response to a pandemic will depend upon such regional models that include locally specific details. Due to some of the specific information included in the guidance, readers should note that some of the material is inapplicable for healthcare institutions in other areas. Much of the guidance is adaptable to other jurisdictions however, as long as it is used within the context of local and state health department recommendations and planning activities.
