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. 2020 Jun 30;24(1):386.
doi: 10.1186/s13054-020-03104-0.

Hospital preparedness for mass critical care during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Thomas Wurmb  1   2 , Katja Scholtes  3   4 , Felix Kolibay  3   5 , Nora Schorscher  6 , Georg Ertl  7 , Ralf-Ingo Ernestus  7 , Ulrich Vogel  8 , Axel Franke  9 , Barbara Kowalzik  10
Affiliations

Hospital preparedness for mass critical care during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Thomas Wurmb et al. Crit Care. .

Abstract

Mass critical care caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 pandemic poses an extreme challenge to hospitals. The primary goal of hospital disaster preparedness and response is to maintain conventional or contingency care for as long as possible. Crisis care must be delayed as long as possible by appropriate measures. Increasing the intensive care unit (ICU) capacities is essential. In order to adjust surge capacity, the reduction of planned, elective patient care is an adequate response. However, this involves numerous problems that must be solved with a sense of proportion. This paper summarises preparedness and response measures recommended to acute care hospitals.

Keywords: Disaster response; Hospital emergency plan; Mass critical care; SARS-CoV-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that there are no competing interests. There was no support from any organisations for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years, no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Managing surge capacity with regard to supplies, staff and space
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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