Bracing for the Storm: One Health Care System's Planning for the COVID-19 Surge

PROBLEM: University of Washington Medicine (UW Medicine), an academic health system in Washington State, was at the epicenter of the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The extent of emergency activation needed to adequately respond to this global pandemic was not immediately known, as the evolving situation differed significantly from any past disaster response preparations in that there was potential for exponential growth of infection, unproven mitigation strategies, serious risk to health care workers, and inadequate supply chains for critical equipment. APPROACH: The rapid transition of the UW Medicine system to account for projected COVID-19 and usual patient care, while balancing patient and staff safety and conservation of resources, represents an example of an adaptive disaster response. KEY INSIGHTS: Although our organization's ability to meet the needs of the public was uncertain, we planned and implemented changes to space, supply management, and staffing plans to meet the influx of patients across our clinical entities. The surge management plan called for specific actions to be implemented based on the level of activity. This article describes the approach taken by UW Medicine as we braced for the storm.