Critical care during epidemics
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* Corresponding author: Lewis Rubinson lrubinso@jhmi.edu
1 Senior Fellow, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
2 Chief Executive Officer and Director, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Critical Care 2005, 9:311-313 doi:10.1186/cc3533
Published: 27 April 2005Abstract
We recommend several actions that could improve hospitals' abilities to deliver critical care during epidemics involving large numbers of victims. In the absence of careful pre-event planning, demand for critical care services may quickly exceed available intensive care unit (ICU) staff, beds and equipment, leaving the bulk of the infected populace without benefit of potentially lifesaving critical care. The toll of death may be inversely proportional to the ability to augment critical care capacity, so critical care health care professionals must take the lead for planning and preparing to care for numbers of seriously ill patients that far exceed available ICU beds.