The COVID-19 pandemic is placing extraordinary strains on the U.S. medical system, most especially hospitals. Hospitals are searching for ways to ramp up their surge capacity to provide critical care for the sickest COVID-19 patients. A team of RAND researchers undertook a quick-turn study to examine a range of strategies for creating critical care surge capacity in the nation's hospitals. As a part of the project, they developed this user-friendly, Microsoft Excel–based tool that allows decisionmakers at all levels — hospitals, health care systems, states, regions — to estimate current critical care capacity and rapidly explore strategies for increasing it.

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       News Release

       Creative Measures Needed to Meet Critical Care Demands of COVID-19; RAND Calculator Can Help Health Officials Plan for Patient Surge Apr 3, 2020

       Report

       Critical Care Surge Response Strategies for the 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak in the United States Apr 3, 2020

       Mahshid Abir, Christopher Nelson, et al.

       Research conducted by RAND Health Care

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