Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
hospitals. It is critical that health care organizations
(in concert with community leadership) initiate
pacts with other organizations such as medical
centers, schools, hotels, veterinary hospitals, and/or
safe surge hospitals after disasters strike as well
as on the challenges that go along with providing
care under these makeshift conditions.
Acknowledgments
We would like to extend our gratitude to the
following people, both of whom were instrumental
in writing this publication:
“Few, if any, hospitals in America today could
handle 100 patients suddenly demanding care.
There is no metropolitan area, no geographi-
cally contiguous area, that could handle 1,000
people suddenly needing advanced medical
care in this country right now.”
Source: U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on
Government Affairs.
FEMA's Role inManaging
Bioterrorist Attacks and the Impact of Public
HealthConcerns onBioterrorismPreparedness
.
107th Cong., 1st sess., July 23, 2001. Testimony
ofTara J.O'Toole,M.D.,M.P.H., JohnsHopkins
Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies.
Pam Brick
Freelance Writer
Paul K. Carlton, Jr., M.D., FACS
Lt. General, USAF (Ret.)
Director, Office of Homeland Security
Texas A&M University System Health Science
Center
Using surge hospitals to respond to
emergencies
Positioning a hospital emergency room near the
site of every potential disaster is impossible, yet a
patient with serious injury needs to be transported
to surgery within the “golden hour” after the injury
occurs for the best chances of survival. Health care
planners have developed a number of innovative
ways that a surge hospital can respond to this need.
These solutions include opening shuttered hospitals
or closed wards in an existing facility, temporarily
using buildings in the community to obtain greater
surge capacity, transporting mobile medical facili-
ties to the site, installing portablemedical or surgical
units near the emergency, and using these types
of portable facilities to augment hospital capacity.
Agreements for use of these facilities should, if
possible, bemade in advance to expedite the delivery
of care in a worst-case scenario. A description of the
different kinds of surge hospitals follows.
convention centers to establish locations for the
off-site triage of patients as well as for acute care
during an emergency. Hospitals and other health
care organizations must develop communitywide
response plans that integrate their capacities into
a single, organized response. Communications and
data sharing that link health care organizations to
local and state public health agencies are critical
to this process.
In truth, no single model exists for the surge
hospital. Today's health care leaders must examine
the various types of surge hospital facilities that have
been used to respond to emergencies and build their
plans based on the needs of the community as well
as the resources available to the organization.
Goal of this publication
This publication provides information to health
care planners at the community, state, and federal
level about what surge hospitals are, the kind of
planning they require, how they can be set up, and
who should be responsible for their establishment
and operation. The case studies at the end of this
paper describe how surge hospitals along the Gulf
Coast were established and operated, providing a
real-life perspective on the importance of creating
Types of surge hospitals
Shuttered hospitals or closed wards
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ), a branch of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (DHHS), offers guid-
ance on using closed hospitals to expand surge
capacity in an emergency. The agency recommends
