Preparing for the COVID-19 Pandemic From a Community Hospital Perspective: Team of Teams Approach

This report describes one community hospital emergency department’s (ED's) experience in preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on both our community and our ED, several proposals were reviewed. Strategies were employed to ensure the protection of ED staff and to lessen the impact of potential patient volume surges. A plan was agreed upon using the “team of teams” approach. Using this method, we achieved our goal of having a plan in place to manage the impact of the pandemic and safely care for our patients.