Surge Capacity Planning

Medical surge capacity is a measure of the hospital's ability to rapidly expand beyond normal services to meet the increased demand for qualified personnel, medical care, information and resources. Establishing and testing procedures to increase (surge) treatment capacity is one of the many challenges hospitals now face.

DQE helps hospitals prepare for the spectrum of surge from maximizing internal resources, opening up beds emergently and re-concentrating staff, to creating new, expanded treatment space. Surge capacity planning focuses on the facility, supplies, logistics, communications, and staff considerations related to the spectrum of surge.

Surge Capacity Focus
This service includes expertise on the following:

• Medical surge capacity plan analysis (strengths, weaknesses, recommendations for improvement)
• Medical surge capacity plan document organization and completion of missing sections
• Inpatient and/or outpatient treatment surge capacity
• Staff support during mass casualty incidents
• Logistical/resource aspects of creating surge capacity space, including community interplay
• Business continuity during mass casualty incidents
• Integration of Incident Command System concepts across entire plan
• Facilitation of workgroups assigned to refining surge capacity plan
• Development of training and exercise program based on surge capacity plan
• Training staff based on revised plan
• Custom services as outlined by client

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