Hospital capacity, capability, and emergency preparedness

Disasters often result in shifts in hospital capacity utilization. Emergency preparedness plans must recognize capacity at the service-line level. This information can provide an additional level of detail to better design response activities and develop cost-effective disaster response plans. We model a possible preparedness plan for Florida hospitals in the case of a major disaster. We model a hurricane event because, in addition to its similarity to other disasters, it provides enough warning for substantive preparation activities. Following Johansen, we measure capacity in a frontier setting using data envelopment analysis. We also use a criterion of economic capability to ensure that a Pareto Optimal situation can be maintained. Information on hospital capacity, patient characteristics of inpatient discharges, and financial performance was merged to perform this study. Our findings suggest there is not enough excess capacity for some specialized services in Florida. However, possible evacuation policies can still be derived from our findings satisfying medical and economic capabilities. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.