Lessons learned: managing a pandemic in a multihospital system

Pandemic influenza has been a concern since the documentation of the 1918 "Spanish" flu. The potential for a novel flu virus to emerge and cause a global pandemic is real and present. Every year many people suffer severe morbidity and mortality to the seasonal strain of the flu, and a pandemic with a novel virus increases those numbers. This article describes the development, revision, and ultimately the enactment of a pandemic respiratory infectious disease plan used during the response to the 2009 H1N1 flu. The plan and related actions provided a roadmap for a robust response to the pandemic, including the protection of health care workers, visitors and patients and increased vaccination rates.