| Home > Events > Disease, Disaster, and Democracy, 2006 > Conference Speakers > Roundtable 2 Roundtable II: What If Hospitals Cannot Take Everyone In?
The Problem of Meeting Immense Medical Needs Background | Issues and participants | Transcript | Summary Purpose, Scenario, and Agenda
Purpose
To illuminate the practical difficulties of caring for large numbers of ill people during a pandemic influenza, and to envision what innovative partnershipsestablished in advance of the crisis among health agencies, hospitals, community-based organizations, businesses, voluntary organizations, and individual citizens, might be able to accomplish in a mass casualty scenario. Scenario
Severe pandemic flu strain (1918-1919 conditions) with a 25% attack rate Influenza cases are rapidly accumulating in your town. Everyone is susceptible to infection, and no vaccine is available. Based on what has happened elsewhere, epidemiologists predict an eight week crisis period during which the disease runs its course through your community. Demand for healthcare is greater than the capacity of local health facilities and personnel to treat flu patients and maintain other essential medical services, according to everyday expectations. At the peak of the outbreak (week five), there is only 1 ventilator for every 2 flu patients who need one, and only one bed for every 5 flu patients. Moreover, patients with other life-threatening conditions are competing for the very same hospital equipment and personnel. Hospitals may very likely facilitate transmission of the flu virus within their walls, due to the large number of infected patients converging on them. Local newspapers carry the following headlines: - "Nursing Homes Swamped By Early Discharges from Hospitals"
- "Flu Quiets Hospital Delivery Rooms Babies Born at Home"
- "Psychiatric Patients Turned Out to Make Room for Flu Victims"
- "Cancer Patients Anxious Over Delayed Surgeries and Chemo Treatments"
Agenda 5 min Introductory Remarks (Tara OToole, Moderator)
20 min Role-Playing by Roundtable Participants The moderator will engage each participant in turn regarding their real-world role as it plays out in a situation where demand for care is greater than the capacity of local hospitals to treat flu patients and maintain other essential medical services, according to everyday expectations. Panelists will speak from their respective roles as political leader, health officer, medical provider, business executive, voluntary relief organization head, and neighborhood association leader. 20 min Brainstorming on Applications of Citizen and Community Engagement The conversation will shift from role playing in the hypothetical crisis to generating ideas about real steps that can be taken, now, pre-pandemic to develop sustainable community-wide plans and vibrant volunteer networks to help deliver care for flu victims, maintain other essential medical services in the community, and preserve the viability of local hospitals after the crisis. Participants will discuss what organizational building blocks now exist with which to support this goal and what additional work needs to be done. 25 min Q&A with audience members
5 min Summary Remarks (Moderator) | 
