Norman G. Vinson

Surge Capacity May 3, 2011

Surge capacity, especially medical surge capacity, comes up a lot in emergency and pandemic preparedness. (Basically, surge capacity means the system can handle a surge in patients.) Here‘s a whole report on it from the CDC, though it focuses on bombings.

One way to have surge capacity is simply to have excess capacity, with lots of people just sitting around much of time waiting for something to happen. I doubt anyone wants that.

I looked through the CDC report, but I didn’t see the following alternative:

In regard to personnel, the military has had surge capacity for a long time. It’s called the reserves. Similarly, a medical reserve could be formed. People would receive some basic training in a variety of areas. When an incident occurs, the reservists can be called in to help. Of course, you’re unlikely to get a bunch of reservists trained in neuro-surgery, but reservists could do basic stuff, freeing up other medical staff to focus their skills on more demanding cases. For example, I’m pretty sure I can learn how to drive an ambulance. Just an idea.