Surge Capacity Deployment in Hospitals Effectiveness of Response and Mitigation Strategies

The authors used operations modeling to assess the effects of “coordinated discharge” (i.e., coordinated between the Emergency Department and In-patient units) during the response phase, and “workflow smoothing” (i.e., managing elective demand in the in-patient units) during the mitigation phase, on surge capacity. They concluded that hospitals with higher utilization and shorter lengths of stay would benefit more from workflow smoothing, and hospitals with lower utilization and longer lengths of stay would benefit more from coordinated discharge.