The Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network is already getting ready for the flu season in the Chatham, Windsor and Sarnia areas.
Peter Crvenkovski, LHIN VP of Performance, says the LHIN is developing a new and improved system wide strategy to better handle a flu surge like what happened in Windsor last year.
Crvenkovski says areas of focus include better predictions and improving infection control.
"How we can decrease outbreaks in long term care homes for instance so we can maintain the flow from hospital back to long term care and vice versa. How we can keep people safely in long term care and not have to bring them into emergency departments," says Crvenkovski.
Crvenkovski says the plan should be ready to implement in early December before the expected flu surge later that month.
Last year, Windsor Regional Hospital was at over capacity for several weeks in December and January because of a flu outbreak in long term care homes.
Crvenkovski says working groups will be established in Chatham, Windsor, Sarnia and possibly Leamington to better support and react to a flu outbreak within the LHIN.
"So that we know what our specific triggers are and what our interventions and actions are going to be at certain statuses like a red or yellow status," Crvenkovski says.
Crvenkovski says the LHIN recently held a planning forum to engage healthcare providers and go over key steps of the plan.
"If we hit a certain level, how do we open up more intensive hospital to home funding, which allows us to take people from the hospital sooner and care for them at home with almost 24-7 support," says Crvenkovski.