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Improving Hospital Surge Capacity: A New Concept for Emergency Credentialing of Volunteers
Title: Improving Hospital Surge Capacity: A New Concept for Emergency Credentialing of Volunteers
Date: May 2007
Author: Carl H. Schultz, MD and Samuel J. Stratton, MD, MPH
Institution: American College of Emergency Physicians
Bibliographic Entry: Schultz, Carl H., and Samuel J. Stratton. “Improving Hospital Surge Capacity: A New Concept for Emergency Credentialing of Volunteers.” Annals of Emergency Medicine 49, no. 5 (May 2007): 602-609.
Electronic Link: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0196064406023493
Article is copyrighted; access article via a library portal or journal subscription.
Key Words: hospital surge capacity, public health emergency, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), National Disaster Medical System, Disaster Medical Assistant Teams (DMAT), Emergency Management Assistance Compact, National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals, Health Resources and Services Administration, hospital-based credentialing system, Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance system
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
In the case of a mass terror attack, natural disaster, or other public health emergency, hospitals would be left unable to hospitalize the thousands of victims. If hospital bed capacity were increased from 20% to 30%, the staffing predicaments remain unsolved. One solution would be to rapidly increase staff through offering emergency credentialing to volunteer health professionals.
Currently, several organizations and systems exist that can potentially deliver medical providers to emergency stricken areas. However, all have serious limitations making it difficult for hospitals to make use of the health care workers being provided. Also proposed is a unique concept that allows hospitals to rapidly expand staff with practitioners meeting credential requirements. The concept includes a database created by each hospital within a community, containing credentialed physicians, nurses, behavioral health professionals, and ancillary staff.
The database will be limited to physicians will full privileges and licensed hospital employees in good standing, with no current disciplinary issues or practice restrictions. Individual databases would be combined and the information would be stored on a single computer system located at the county health care agency or another mutually acceptable organization. Copies could then be sent to participating hospitals as well as the state. Following a mass disaster, health care workers from unaffected areas, including other states, can offer their volunteer services to hospitals. Practitioners named on the database list could be given 72-hour privileges in their specialties. This process of immediately credentialing vast numbers of medical volunteers is considered to be accurate, inexpensive, efficient sustainable, and compliant with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Name of Researcher: Alison Stevens
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: April 30, 2008