The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations on Dec. 7 issued a guide describing how community, state and federal health care planners can establish temporary facilities called “surge hospitals” to supplement existing hospitals in an emergency. The guide examines the various types of surge hospitals, and how to plan for, establish and operate them; and how surge hospitals were established during the recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast. “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have shown us that having plans to ‘surge in place,’ meaning expanding a functional facility to treat a large number of patients after a mass casualty incident, is not always sufficient in disasters because the health care organization itself may be too damaged to operate,” JCAHO notes.
[ via AHA News ]
