Background: For over a week, six hospitals in the Central Plains experience increasing admissions to Emergency Departments, overwhelming them and forcing many to go on divert status. By week two, it is obvious that they are dealing with a pandemic flu outbreak. Staff members fall sick; Human Resources cannot keep up with the demand for personnel needed for the influx of patients. Hospital services are stretched to their limits and many must be curtailed or cancelled.

• Patient admissions are rising in nearby facilities, but the trend isn't spotted until it's too late.
• Many facilities in the area are unfamiliar with the latest recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) regarding pandemic flu outbreaks, leaving them unprepared for a coordinated response.
• Many personnel that are part of the ICS for pandemic flu are themselves sick, leaving them unable to respond and hospitals short-handed.
• There is a need for more beds, but finding them is proving difficult.

• Facilities were kept up-to-date regarding pandemic flu warnings and outbreaks via the LiveProcess Disaster News feeds and the LiveProcess Community.
• Aware of the warnings, each of the facilities used LiveProcess' Reference feature to access the DHHS' most recent recommendations regarding pandemic flu response and control.
  
• The pandemic flu ICS is reviewed at each facility and updated to identify alternates should the primary contacts become ill.
• Because LiveProcess is Internet-based, personnel within the ICS who are sick but still well enough to provide assistance login to LiveProcess from their homes to stay updated and provide response support.
• Using the LiveProcess Beds & Inventory function the inventory of beds at hospitals within two hundred miles is compared to the number of beds that are needed. The Emergency Coordinators in the affected areas use the LiveProcess Event Log to coordinate the most efficient use of all available beds.
• Use of LiveProcess meant that facilities had time to prepare and mount a coordinated response. All patients were allocated beds at nearby hospitals. And staff — including those who couldn't make it into the hospital because of illness — were still able to contribute to the response, mitigating a potentially much more severe situation.