Rallying All Resources: A Multidisciplinary Innovation to Plan for the Projected COVID-19 Inpatient Surge

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the need for hospitals to plan for a potential "surge" of COVID-19 patients. Problem: Prior 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. Approach: A 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. Outcomes: A protocol was rapidly created and implemented, ultimately transferring 12 patients to an ambulatory surgery unit. Conclusions: This 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.