Some hospitals may be having issues keeping up with the number of people being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, but locally, administrators say it isn’t an issue.

Northeast Georgia Medical Center officials say they have been planning for a flu pandemic for the past five years, so they are prepared to handle the current patient increase.

“Thankfully we are seeing less severe symptoms that allow us to manage those patients at a primary care setting, or most of these patients are managing themselves at home. In a worst case scenario, the state has (location specific) plans that hospitals can use that provide for restructuring elective procedures (to handle patient overflow),” said Kevin Matson, Northeast Georgia Medical Center director of safety.

“The name of the game is continuity of services. We have a diverse community with diverse needs. We need to meet the needs of patients with flu (symptoms) and at the same time meet the needs of the patients who require surgery (and other care). That is the premise of our planning — to meet the needs of the entire community in addition to those with acute concerns like H1N1.”

Over the past weeks, the number of patients seeking care at the emergency room for flu-like symptoms has increased, just as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted, said Dane Henry, the hospital’s vice president of support services.

“We are very similar to other organizations that are acute care facilities where we are seeing a higher number of patients with flu-like symptoms, particularly for this time of year. I think we have a situation where people are very aware of the prevalence of the H1N1 virus and folks don’t want to take any chances. They want to come to the emergency room and be seen by a provider to ensure that they are OK and receive the appropriate care at the right provider level,” said Henry.

“I think what we’re seeing is a situation that is very multi-faceted. The No. 1 reason is that we have a very robust story in the media that is in essence on television and in print on a daily basis. We also had (President Barack Obama) make the declaration that he made over the weekend relative to the state of emergency, so clearly there is a legitimate cause for concern within the public health and acute care community.”

On Saturday, Obama declared a national emergency in respect to the “H1N1 influenza pandemic,” citing the “rapid increase in illness across the nation (that) may overburden health care resources.” The declaration allows health care facilities to waive certain federal requirements in order to implement emergency operations plans to handle the pandemic if necessary. Since being identified in the spring, the H1N1 virus has killed at least 1,000 Americans and made millions more ill. So far, around 25 Georgians have died from the virus.

According to the World Health Organization, “A disease epidemic occurs when there are more cases of that disease than normal. A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic of a disease.”

Health officials with the CDC are urging Americans to take advantage of the H1N1 vaccination, claiming that it is the best way to avoid getting sick. H1N1 vaccination production has been taking longer than taking longer than expected, but officials have since reported that the process is picking up.

“We’re beginning to get to significant increases in availability,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director, said during a briefing.

Last week there were only around 14 million vaccinations available, this week supplies have topped more than 22 million. For non-emergency situations, Northeast Georgia Medical Center officials urge patients with flu-like symptoms to take advantage of one of three urgent care facilities in Gainesville, Braselton and Buford.

“We’ve been seeing around 10 to 20 patients a day come into the emergency room with flu-like symptoms. We can swab them to hopefully confirm (their illness). We are seeing individuals that are extremely ill, but those are the vast minority of patients,” said Henry.

“I want to express to the community with a reasonable level of confidence in our ability to provide care that is needed to help members of this community through this pandemic.”