Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 48, Issue 4 , Pages 389-390 , October 2006

Hospital Surge Capacity: If You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Can You Get What You Need?

  • Michael J. Schull, MD, MSc, FRCPC

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress for correspondence: Michael J. Schull, MD, MSc, FRCPC, G-106, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, 2075 Bayview Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4N 3M5; 416-480-6100 ext 3793, fax 416-480-6048.

References 

  1. DeLia CW. Annual bed statistics give a misleading picture of hospital surge capacity. Ann Emerg Med. 2006;48:384–388
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  3. Taylor CW. Surge capacity: preparing your healthcare system. Emerg Med Serv. 2003;32:91–92
  4. Harper DR. Preparedness for SARS in the UK in 2003. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2004;359:1131–1132
  5. American College of Emergency Physicians. Health care system surge capacity recognition, preparedness, and response [policy statement]. Ann Emerg Med. 2005;45:239
  6. Bagust A, Place M, Posnett JW. Dynamics of bed use in accommodating emergency admissions: stochastic simulation model. BMJ. 1999;319:155–158
  7. Hanson JO. The epic struggle of two hospitals to rescue the abandoned [Atlanta Journal-Constitution Web site]. Available at: http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/twohospitals/entries/2006/05/05/chapter_1_of_22.html. Accessed May 17, 2006.
  8. Toronto Public Health. The Toronto pandemic influenza plan. Available at: http://www.toronto.ca/health//pandemicflu/pdf/toronto_pandemic_influenza_plan.pdf. Accessed February 28, 2006.
  9. Gottlieb S. The casualties that never arrived. BMJ. 2001;323:654
  10. Schull MJ, Stukel TA, Vermeulen MJ, et al. Surge capacity associated with restrictions on non-urgent hospital admissions compared with predicted admissions during an influenza pandemic: lessons from the Toronto severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak. Acad Emerg Med. 2006. In press.
  11. Varia M, Wilson S, Sarwal S, et al. Hospital Outbreak Investigation Team Investigation of a nosocomial outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Toronto, Canada. CMAJ. 2003;169:285–292
  12. Meltzer MI, Cox NJ, Fukuda K. The economic impact of pandemic influenza in the United States: priorities for intervention. Emerg Infect Dis. 1999;5:659–671

 Supervising editor: Jonathan L. Burstein, MDFunding and support: The author reports this study did not receive any outside funding or support.Publication dates: Available online July 12, 2006.Reprints not available from the authors.

PII: S0196-0644(06)00786-4

doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2006.06.003

Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 48, Issue 4 , Pages 389-390 , October 2006

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