Data for decision making: strategic information tools for hospital management during a pandemic.

Objectives: During the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, Argentina's Hospital Nacional Profesor Alejandro Posadas, a referral center in the capital province of Buenos Aires, treated a large urban patient population. Beginning in April, after severe influenza had been reported in North America but before any suspected cases of H1N1 had been reported in Argentina, the authors formed a pandemic planning committee to direct our hospital's response. An important strategy of the management team was to create a single daily monitoring tool that could integrate multiple information sources.

Hospital capacity during an influenza pandemic-Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009.

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.

[Influenza A(H1N1) epidemic in Argentina. Experience in a National General Hospital (Hospital Nacional Alejandro Posadas)].

Unlabelled: The preparation and medical care during the influenza A(H1N1) outbreak (June 2009) in a high complexity level, public, general hospital with laboratory diagnosis, general and intensive care (ICU) hospitalization is described. A plan was designed to increase the hospital's surge capacity, reallocate resources and guarantee bio-safety. The number of consultations was 7.