As emergency rooms across the country continue to be swamped with flu patients, Maine hospital officials are expecting this year's flu onslaught to become even more severe, according to a Bangor Daily News report.
Flu season typically peaks later in the year in Maine than in more southern states, according to the CDC's flu surveillance maps. The maps show Maine to be lagging several weeks behind western and southern states in the geographic spread of the flu and the flu's intensity, which may be linked to cooler weather and a sparse population.
Epidemiologist August Valenti, MD, said the emergency department at Maine Medical Center in Portland had to divert incoming flu patients to different hospitals on several occasions this flu season.
The hospital paired flu patients in double rooms and used beds in specialty areas of the hospitals to accommodate the overload, Dr. Valenti said. Hospital officials are also considering canceling elective surgeries to keep acute care beds open and using a heated tent to triage emergency patients.
So far, the flu has caused 34 deaths, 667 hospitalizations and outbreaks in 77 nursing homes, schools and other institutions this season in Maine, which is significantly more severe than the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.
"Hospitals [in other states] are using their emergency management plans in order to see all the patients who need care. We're not at that point in Maine, because the severity hasn't peaked out yet here," said Kathy Knight, director of the North East Regional Resource Center in Brewer, Maine, a public health emergency preparedness program. "We have a unique opportunity here to get ahead of the game."