Surge Capacity and Capability. A Review of the History and Where the Science is Today Regarding Surge Capacity during a Mass Casualty Disaster

Abstract

Disasters which include countless killed and many more injured, have occurred throughout recorded history. Many of the same reports of disaster also include numerous accounts of individuals attempting to rescue those in great peril and render aid to the injured and infirmed. The purpose of this paper is to briefly discuss the transition through several periods of time with managing a surge of many patients. This review will focus on the triggering event, injury and illness, location where the care is provided and specifically discuss where the science is today.

Learning lessons from the 2011 Van Earthquake to enhance healthcare surge capacity in Turkey

“…This concurs very well with recent findings of Kearns et al (2014) who reviewed the development and progress of surge capacity since the 1900s concluding that the current understanding of surge capacity involves staff, space, supplies and the standard of care.…”

Disaster Preparedness and Response for the Burn Mass Casualty Incident in the Twenty-first Century

“…Preparations for largescale events must include plans to address surge resources on local, regional, and national scales. 1,4,[16][17][18] Capacity refers to the quantity of staff, space, and supplies (pharmaceuticals and equipment) available. Capability refers to the types of clinicians available to render appropriate care for the sick and injured, as well as the quality of equipment needed to perform certain procedures.…”

“…19 Factors to consider in a capability analysis include available equipment and its asset typing, noninventory materials that have the potential for shipping and receiving, and available personnel with detailed credentialing information. 4 In addition, an understanding of transportation assets, multijurisdictional, and multiagency are imperative. 21…”

“…This planning contributes to the provision of consistent care delivered through the rational coordination of integrated system-level care networks. [2][3][4] When disaster strikes, the first calls for help are funneled to the local 9-1-1 center (although 9-1-1 is the number used primarily in the United States and other countries, this number varies in other countries to include 9-9-9 and 1-1-2 being several of the more common).…”

Precision Augmentation of Medical Surge Capacity for Disaster Response

“…Medical surge capacity and capability for effectively expanding a healthcare system in a short period of time is an important aspect of disaster response [3,4]. Augmentation of medical surge capacity as a basic strategy can be used to achieve an effective disaster response [5,6]. Precision augmentation of medical surge capacity includes precision launching or increasing the level of emergency response to release internal surge capacity, precision support for medical surge capacity from external resources, centralized response, and altering standards of care [7].…”