• Avital Y O'Glasser, Scott Stroup, Matthias J Merkel, Elizabeth Lahti, Sharon Kubik, Kristi Vaughn, Erin Reback, Ruth Rumberger, Mariah Hayes, Jennifer Backer, Tee Solani, and Stephanie Halvorson.
• Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland (Drs O'Glasser, Stroup, Lahti, and Halvorson); OHSU Mission Control, Portland, Oregon (Dr Merkel); Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland (Dr Merkel); OHSU Nursing Administration, Portland, Oregon (Drs Kubik and Vaughn and Mss Reback, Rumberger, and Hayes); and OHSU Division of Care Management, Portland, Oregon (Mss Backer and Solani).
• J Nurs Care Qual. 2021 Apr 1; 36 (2): 112-116.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the need for hospitals to plan for a potential "surge" of COVID-19 patients.ProblemPrior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our hospital adult acute care capacity ranged 90% to 100%, and a potential hospital surge was projected for Oregon that would exceed existing capacity.ApproachA multidisciplinary team with stakeholders from nursing leadership, nursing units, nurse-led case management, and physicians from hospital medicine was convened to explore the conversion of an ambulatory surgical center to overflow patient acute care capacity.OutcomesA protocol was rapidly created and implemented, ultimately transferring 12 patients to an ambulatory surgery unit.ConclusionsThis project highlighted the ability for stakeholders and innovators to work together in an interprofessional, multidisciplinary way to rapidly create an overflow unit. While this innovation was designed to address COVID-19, the lessons learned can be applied to any other emerging infectious disease or acute care capacity crisis.Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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