Flu Season Is Early This Year. Is Your Equipment Ready?

Most hospitals count on October as a planning month. Flu activity usually starts climbing around this time and doesn’t peak until somewhere between December and February, which generally leaves a few weeks to get units ready before census rises.

This year, that runway is shorter. According to the CDC, weekly flu hospitalizations nearly tripled between early September and early October, rising from 1,133 admissions in the week ending September 5 to 3,334 in the week ending October 3.

Last season showed how quickly things can move once the flu gets going. The CDC’s pre-season outlook called for a moderate year, but a new H3N2 strain, subclade K, emerged after the vaccine was formulated and spread fast. By early January, some hospitals were postponing elective procedures to protect capacity, and by the end of the season the CDC had rated it high severity for children.

Hospitals can’t control when flu arrives, but they can control how ready their equipment is when it does. Preventive maintenance, inventory audits, and distribution planning are all manageable while census is normal. But in the middle of a surge, staff and equipment are already stretched thin. Any device that’s out for service, missing, or on the wrong unit adds to the burden on teams that have no time to spare. Preparing now is the best way to keep that pressure off the floor when demand peaks.

Why Equipment Prep Can’t Wait for the Surge

Flu surges drive up demand for equipment like infusion pumps, vital signs monitors, ventilators, HEPA fans and filters, SCD pumps, and EtCO2 monitors. Naturally, these are the devices that tend to run short first when census climbs.

Pulling a device for service while census is high leaves it unavailable at the exact moment it’s needed most. The same is true of equipment sitting in a stash spot or a monitor that drifted to another floor two weeks ago. In each of these situations, the equipment technically exists and is available, but without real-time visibility, it’s invisible to the staff who need it.

Even outside of flu season, the time staff spend searching for equipment is costly. According to HIMSS, studies have found that nurses spend anywhere from 21 to 60 minutes per shift looking for equipment; and that number only grows as patient volume and acuity rise.

Your Pre-Season Equipment Checklist

Most of the work that keeps equipment available during a surge happens well before it. The checklist below covers six steps hospital leaders, nursing managers, and biomedical engineering teams can take in the next few weeks, while census is still manageable. Each one can be done with the processes most hospitals already have in place, though real-time asset tracking makes every step faster, easier, and more efficient.

Finish preventive maintenance now

Look ahead at scheduled maintenance for November through February, including inspections, servicing, and safety checks, and move up anything due on high-demand devices. For a flu surge in particular, think of devices like ventilators, bipap machines, and HEPA filters. This is also a good time to confirm that open recalls have been addressed, since a recall in the middle of a surge forces the hospital to pull devices it can least afford to lose.

Biomedical engineering teams can only service equipment they can find, and tracking down every device due for maintenance manually can take days of walking unit to unit and checking storage rooms. With smart asset management, the team can pull up a list of every device due for service, see exactly where they’re located, and plan a single efficient route to collect them. They can also see which devices are currently idle and which are in use with a patient, so maintenance can be scheduled without pulling equipment away from someone who needs it.

Audit inventory while census is normal

Running an audit before census climbs gives teams time to act on what they find, before demand picks up. Regular audits should capture each asset’s type, operational status, location, maintenance history, and years in service. One of the most revealing parts of the process is comparing the number of devices the hospital owns to the number staff can actually locate. Those two numbers are rarely the same, and the difference often points to the equipment that staff will end up searching for once the surge starts.

When performed manually, an audit means staff are walking every unit, opening closets and storage rooms, and reconciling what they find against a spreadsheet that may already be out of date by the time it’s finished. Asset management replaces most of that legwork with a live inventory. Teams can see where every device is right now and where it was last seen, so equipment that drifted to another unit can be retrieved in minutes instead of being written off as missing. 

Use last season’s peak usage data to plan this one

Last winter likely left behind a record of where equipment ran short. Rental invoices, shortage reports, incident reports, and staff feedback from the 2025-2026 season can all show which units struggled, which days and shifts were hardest hit, and which devices were in short supply; that information can be used to set par levels for each unit, rather than relying on memory. Keep in mind, however, that this season is being driven by a different strain (H1N1) than last season (H3N2), so the timing, patient mix, and even equipment may not follow the same pattern. 

Manual records only tell part of the story, though. They show where staff felt a shortage, but not whether the equipment was actually in use. Asset management fills in that missing detail, showing how often each type of device was in use during last season’s peak weeks, broken down by unit, day, and shift. Often, this information can reveal that the hospital had enough equipment all along, it just wasn’t where staff needed it. With that level of detail, par levels can be based on actual usage rather than perception, and planning can focus on getting existing equipment to the right places before spending on costly new purchases or rentals.

Rebalance equipment and verify unit readiness

Equipment drifts between units over the course of a year, and by the autumn, some units are holding more than they need while others are running short. Move devices back to their home units now, and set readiness requirements for the rooms most likely to hold flu or isolation patients. When every unit starts the season stocked to its par level, managers aren’t sorting out shortages during an admission rush.

Without real-time data, rebalancing inventory is significantly more complex, requiring staff to first notice an imbalance and then walk the floors to fix it. Asset management makes both much simpler; managers can see which devices are away from their home unit and exactly where they are, so returning them takes one trip instead of a search. 

In addition, tools like Unit Readiness compare the equipment in each room against its requirements in real time, flagging rooms that are short and rooms holding more than they need. During a surge, when admissions and transfers are constant, that means rooms can be confirmed ready in seconds rather than rechecked by hand every time a patient moves.

Get ahead of hoarding

Equipment hoarding tends to grow out of worry about shortages, which can make busy seasons a particularly vulnerable time. When staff worry they won’t be able to find a piece of equipment later, they hold onto one now, and the shortage gets worse for everyone else. 

Before flu season peaks, let staff know that equipment is being prepared for any potential surges and that a plan is in place to keep units supplied. When staff trust that equipment needs are being taken care of, they’re less likely to take matters into their own hands, and more confident that units will have what they need if volumes rise. 

Over time, as staff see that equipment is consistently where the system says it is, the habit of hiding devices fades on its own.

Figure out what you need before you spend

When equipment feels scarce, the instinct is often to rent or buy more. But before committing budget, it can be worth taking a closer look at what the hospital already has. Some shortages may be solved by moving existing equipment to where it’s needed. Others may be short-term spikes that a rental can cover for a few busy weeks. And if the same units run short on the same devices every winter, that may be a sign that purchasing makes more sense than renting year after year.

Making those calls is difficult without accurate data, since requests for more equipment usually come from units already under pressure. Asset management gives leaders a clearer picture of what they own, how often it’s used, and where it tends to sit idle, so spending decisions can be based on actual need. 

Ready Before the First Wave

Every step on this checklist can be done without technology, but asset tracking and asset management make each one far easier. Together, they help teams find and service equipment quickly, use real data to keep devices where they’re needed, and make informed decisions about what to rent or buy. Without them, the same work depends on manual searches, paper lists, and educated guesses, all of which take time that care teams don’t have to spare.

That work only gets harder as flu season picks up speed. The early signs suggest this season is arriving ahead of schedule, with hospitalizations already climbing in parts of the country. The weeks ahead are the best window to prepare, so that when patient volumes rise, units have the equipment they need ready and waiting.