HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT
W
hile patient and provider experiences vary by country, COVID-19 has illuminated the global nature of healthcare and tested the resilience of organisations. At the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals braced for an incoming wave of COVID19 patients and took proactive steps to preserve hospital capacity and resources. Many countries directed public hospitals to cancel non-urgent surgeries and to ramp up their intensive care unit (ICU) bed capacity to accommodate any potential surge in pandemic patients. At the individual level, many patients chose to delay their care and stay home to reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19. On this side of
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A SI A N H O S P I T A L & H EA LT HCA R E M A N AGE M E N T
PREPARING FOR PATIENT SURGES AMID A PANDEMIC In March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since that time, health systems and patients have been challenged to rapidly adapt in the face of capacity surges, unprecedented resource consumption and an array of new safety procedures. As vaccines continue to roll out, a surge of patients needing non-emergent care is likely to put new strains on our healthcare resources. Solutions and new workflows will be needed to cope with the increased volume of patients seeking care. John Lee-Bartlett, Country Director, Allscripts Canada
IS S UE - 57, 2022
