Sanjana Puri, Sarah Tsay, Scott A Goldberg, Jennifer Shearer, Joshua J Baugh, Eileen F Searle, Paul D Biddinger
{"title":"The Need for a New Approach to MCI Readiness in the Era of Emergency Department and Hospital Crowding.","authors":"Sanjana Puri, Sarah Tsay, Scott A Goldberg, Jennifer Shearer, Joshua J Baugh, Eileen F Searle, Paul D Biddinger","doi":"10.1089/hs.2024.0058","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Emergency department (ED) visit volumes have increased since 2007, with crowding in the United States reaching its highest levels in 2022. During this same period, mass casualty incidents (MCIs) have increased dramatically, both in frequency and severity, across the United States. Resuscitation of trauma patients is a time-sensitive process that requires immediate patient assessment by coordinated clinical teams in order to successfully diagnose and manage life-threatening injuries. To make resuscitation spaces immediately available for incoming patients, typical MCI plans call for rapidly relocating ED patients from their rooms into hallways or transferring them to open inpatient areas. With current levels of crowding, however, such alternate care spaces are often already in use and traditional MCI plans are increasingly unrealistic. With ED crowding worsening and the frequency of MCIs rising, there is a worrisome risk that EDs could fail in their efforts to save patients due to insufficient resources and spaces to meet the demands of critically injured patients. Hospitals must use innovative, novel response strategies to ensure sufficient patient care spaces in a short timeframe to save the most lives possible. In this commentary, we describe the use of buffer zones to help EDs mobilize an effective response to MCIs in the current context of severe hospital crowding.</p>","PeriodicalId":12955,"journal":{"name":"Health Security","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Security","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2024.0058","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Emergency department (ED) visit volumes have increased since 2007, with crowding in the United States reaching its highest levels in 2022. During this same period, mass casualty incidents (MCIs) have increased dramatically, both in frequency and severity, across the United States. Resuscitation of trauma patients is a time-sensitive process that requires immediate patient assessment by coordinated clinical teams in order to successfully diagnose and manage life-threatening injuries. To make resuscitation spaces immediately available for incoming patients, typical MCI plans call for rapidly relocating ED patients from their rooms into hallways or transferring them to open inpatient areas. With current levels of crowding, however, such alternate care spaces are often already in use and traditional MCI plans are increasingly unrealistic. With ED crowding worsening and the frequency of MCIs rising, there is a worrisome risk that EDs could fail in their efforts to save patients due to insufficient resources and spaces to meet the demands of critically injured patients. Hospitals must use innovative, novel response strategies to ensure sufficient patient care spaces in a short timeframe to save the most lives possible. In this commentary, we describe the use of buffer zones to help EDs mobilize an effective response to MCIs in the current context of severe hospital crowding.
期刊介绍:
Health Security is a peer-reviewed journal providing research and essential guidance for the protection of people’s health before and after epidemics or disasters and for ensuring that communities are resilient to major challenges. The Journal explores the issues posed by disease outbreaks and epidemics; natural disasters; biological, chemical, and nuclear accidents or deliberate threats; foodborne outbreaks; and other health emergencies. It offers important insight into how to develop the systems needed to meet these challenges. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Health Security covers research, innovations, methods, challenges, and ethical and legal dilemmas facing scientific, military, and health organizations. The Journal is a key resource for practitioners in these fields, policymakers, scientific experts, and government officials.