Hospitals provide another dimension in shaping the spread of an influenza pandemic and affecting the efficacy of the various policies and diagnostic approaches. Unlike other location types, individuals who show influenza-like symptoms will deliberately go to the hospital for diagnosis, providing an opportunity for potential spread of the virus (Nuñ o et al. 2007 ). In our current model setting, hospital transmission does not play a major role as we have implemented a simple hospital segregation policy through the designation of a flu hospital. However, without such policies, some diagnostic methods may not work as well as shown previously.