Phone interviews with key capacity managers at 53 US hospitals about preparedness for the 2017-18 flu epidemic revealed a lack of surge capacity, strained resources, and low prioritization of pandemic planning, according to a qualitative study today in JAMA Network Open.Researchers at Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh conducted the semistructured interviews among a random sample of capacity managers at 25 geographically diverse hospitals from April 2018 to January 2019.Participants said they experienced strain owing to concerns about preparedness for seasonal flu, staffing, patient care, and hospital capacity but indicated that planning for future pandemics was not a high priority.