Minnesota pandemic influenza planning assumptions pdf

Minnesota Pandemic Influenza Planning Assumptions (PDF: 101KB/2 pages) page.
As a community resource, flu center plans should include serving at-risk populations as well as
uninsured and underinsured people.
Mass Dispensing Site, Flu Center or Alternative Care Site?
With limited resources, healthcare and public health must decide how to best serve the needs of
their communities. In the case of pandemic influenza, the decision to open a Mass Dispensing
Site versus an Alternative Care Site versus a Flu Center will be dependent upon the current
community picture.
 If influenza vaccinations are available and local public health are planning to target large
numbers of people, then a Mass Dispensing Site may be the best choice.

 If influenza-like illness is causing a significant increase in out-patient cases and the
volume load has exceeded the surge capacity of clinics and hospital emergency
departments, then a Flu Center could be the best community resource.
 If influenza-like illness is causing severe medical problems requiring a significant
increase in hospitalizations, hospitals can initially increase their in-patient surge capacity
and draw on the resources of hospitals within their compact. However, once this regional
hospital in-patient surge capacity has been exceeded, then an Alternative Care Site could
be the resource to deploy.
If more than one of the above situations is present, public health and healthcare will need to
decide how to best deploy their limited resources, based on community needs and resources.
More than one type of site may be opened and/or the functions of the three different sites could
be combined into one community resource.