Table 2.
Sample surge capacity worksheet for critical care supervisor at large hospital: City Hospital Critical Care Surge Capacity Worksheet
| Unit | Conventional | Contingency | Crisis | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MICU | 12 | 16 | 16 | Add four beds from storage to MICU bays 2–4, will need monitors |
| CCU | 8 | 12 | 16 | Add four standard beds from storage to each room, in crisis add gurney bed to each remaining room |
| SICU | 15 | 15 | 15 | Rooms do not allow additional placement |
| PICU | 10 | 15 | 15 | Bays 1–4 accommodate beds from pediatric clinic procedure area |
| PACU | 6–12 | 12 | Double up gurneys/carts in bays, may consider use of operative spaces with anesthesia/incident manager if not required for surgical cases | |
| Surgery and Procedure Outpatient Center | 12–24 | 24 | Double up carts in bays. Also may consider use of operative spaces with anesthesia/incident manager if not required for surgical cases | |
| GI laboratory | 4–6 | 6 | Four rooms with full monitoring and gases, two recovery beds with sat monitor | |
| Cardiac short stay | 15 | 30 | Rooms do not allow doubling but could accommodate additional cot/stretcher | |
| Observation | 10 | 12 | Rooms do not accommodate additional beds but two hall gurneys possible that have wall oxygen | |
| Medical 1 | 30 (unit baseline is 20) | Note total 15 beds in storage for ALL units—could accommodate up to this level but would require cots/transport stretchers until typical bed could be obtained; 10 beds/cots along hallway can be accommodated but only 30 could have intermediate/ICU care | ||
| Medical 2 | 40 (unit baseline is 30) | See note for Medical 1—also lobby area at end of floor accommodates ten cots/gurneys, intermediate/ICU care confined to 40 beds | ||
| Surgical 3 | 30 (unit baseline is 20) | See note for Medical 1 | ||
| Totals by category | 45a | 60–78b | 121 | Unlikely that facility oxygen system can accommodate use for every bed beyond Medical 1 |
MICU medical intensive care unit, SICU surgical intensive care unit, CCU coronary care unit, PACU post-anesthesia care unit, GI gastroententerology, Medical 1 medical or surgical floor beds etc.
aMinus pre-event patients that cannot be transferred out, usually approximately 80% of capacity
bRepresents 100–200% expansion of critical care spaces. Note sufficient ventilators only for conventional beds—will require vendor/partner/governmental assistance to obtain 1:1 for any additional beds and would have to use temporizing measures until ventilators can be obtained or implement triage strategies if not able to obtain additional units or transfer patients. Activation of contingency spaces for expected time periods >6 h should prompt consideration of patient evacuation to other, less-affected facilities for care