Bed Capacity Still a Problem.

• Position: HOSPITALS

So far, it is looking like rampaging viruses are the major theme of the decade. New COVID-19 surges are likely for the foreseeable future. Monkeypox has been declared a public health emergency. While we do not know what the next major pandemic will be, Infectious disease specialists believe it is inevitable that there will be one--and one after that

Is our nation's health care system prepared to handle whatever pandemics may come?--not according to Regina E. Herzlinger, professor of business administration at Harvard University and author of the upcoming book, Innovating in Healthcare: Creating Breakthrough Services, Products, and Business Models. She points out that the U.S. has fewer hospital beds per population than most developed countries--and COVID-19 coupled with this lack of capacity led to thousands of deaths. "As we saw in 2020 and 2021, many U.S. hospitals lack the capacity to cope with a public health emergency. This is especially tragic considering that, in all too many cases, beds were available nearby."

Herzlinger was interviewed on this subject in a recent article in Employee Benefit News. In it, she and colleague Richard J. Boxer, clinical professor of urology at the University of California, Los Angeles, cited the disparity between two hospitals in Spokane County, Wash., early in the pandemic: One hospital had 536 beds and was 92% occupied, while the other had 583 beds and was 30% occupied.

In situations like this, why doesnt Hospital A just send patients to Hospital B? There are several reasons: lack of transparency; hospitals do not always know when there is space at other facilities; lack of effective "surge capacity plans" among hospitals in which they rely on shared resource networks; the nature of competition. Hospitals are like businesses in competition with each other and are not likely to share their capacity willingly.

Herzlinger says oft-cited capacity shortage "solutions" like additional government health corps are magical thinking. They are virtually unworkable in an industry that already has a major staffing shortage, especially with leadership from the Department of Health and Human Services, an overwhelmed government agency that has responded so slowly to past needs--and, maintains Herzlinger, Congress may be unlikely to push through the necessary policy change with...