Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

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Resource Management:

Doctor and equipment constraint problem (define)

A dedicated database system can be implemented to assist in detecting and responding to health threats outbreaks such as SARS. It will also help in keeping track of condition of people visiting and update on patients at which stage of treatment they are. Also it will also help manage hospital inventory efficiently. We can estimate/forecast how much inventory is required per patient which will help the hospital better management. Moreover, the IT system will maintain patients, health care staff and specialist doctor schedule. It will generate a time based triggered alarm, which will provide an update to all personnel what they are supposed to do at that specific point of time.

Equipment Constraints:

Hospital needs to establish a proper and strict surveillance plan which needs to be followed by all healthcare employees. A dedicated database system can be implemented to assist in detecting and responding to health threats outbreaks such as SARS. It will also help in keeping track of condition of people visiting and update on resources assigned and utilized by the hospital.

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Human Resource Constraints:

Furthermore, because of the sudden outbreak now there is storage of health care professional, especially specialist doctors, physicians, emergency housekeeping staff and nurses. As there are limited specialist doctors they need to be assigned efficiently between departments. Also equipment to be used for treatment, such as copiers, oxygen cylinders, diagnostic image and laboratory equipment is are short. The MUMC needs to implement a policy, where time and distribution of resources will be allocated. Example, there will be a time window prescribed when equipment will be used by which departments. Dedicated lab employees will be assigned with the equipments who will be responsible of making equipments available to designated department on time. It is responsibility of the departments to make that as productive as possible.

The need for Crisis Communication:

Death of an employee has brought bad publicity to the hospital. Media is on high alert and is monitoring every step closely. MUMC needs to gain back the trust of the general public, health care providers and system as a whole. SARS was characterized by an unknown cause and had no clear diagnosis or treatment. The situation was unique for MUMC and they did not have immediate answers. This made it difficult to communicate clearly with the general public and healthcare stakeholders about the disease. Also there was no direct line communications where MUMC could share updates and information regarding SARS. As there were various stakeholders involved such as general public, affected families, media and authorities, so different channel of communications are required accordingly to share respective needs for information. Those affected by SARS were scared and forced into quarantine. Therefore, it is important to communicate, to keep affected families, patients and community of Hamilton well informed about the disease. Sharing of wrong information with different stakeholders will damage the credibility of the hospital.

Crisis Communication Plan:

Impose Travelling resrictions:

Also another known risk factor of developing SARS are recent travel to areas such as China, Hong Kong, Vietnam or Singapore where SARS is spreading locally. Health ministry in collaboration with the government should impose sanctions at airports on people traveling from these countries. Travelers will undergo thorough examination at the airports. Appropriate action will be taken if travelers are treated positive for SARS. As there are already scarcity of resources we need to control infection from spreading.

Scope of Analysis and discussion:

Provide recommendations and discuss implications of those recommendations for the following questions:

- Whether to discontinue any transfer patients for shared service? (Nauman)

- Whether to Start screening those who enter and whether to make it mandatory for them to don the protective gear? (Nauman)

- Whether to clear an entire ward? (Onib)

- Whether to Stop sharing resources between departments? (Onib)

2. Contingencies to be put in place (Shared Responsibility)

3. Other decisions and concerns that need to be addressed. (Shared Responsibility)

Memo and Press Release needs to be written too!!

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