Congressional alert

Health Care

April 2020

Ambulances seen outside NYU Langone Hospital's Emergency entrance during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in New York City, March 31, 2020, photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Critical Care Surge Response Strategies for the COVID-19 Outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating unprecedented stresses on hospitals and health care systems across the United States. Hospitals can prepare for a surge of patients critically ill with COVID-19, but it will require hospital leaders, practitioners, and regional officials to adopt drastic measures that challenge the standard way of providing care.

A new RAND report summarizes a range of evidence-based and promising strategies for creating critical care capacity in the nation’s hospitals. The report includes considerations for state, regional, and federal policymakers. It is also accompanied by a simple-to-use online 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.

Read the report »
Access the tool »

More COVID-19 Resources

Epidemiology and Health Care

A health care worker in protective equipment enters the Brooklyn Hospital Center during the COVID-19 outbreak in Brooklyn, New York, March 31, 2020

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

COMMENTARY: U.S. COVID-19 Cases on the Rise: Q&A with RAND Experts

COMMENTARY: Amidst a Pandemic, a Mental Health Crisis May be Looming

COMMENTARY: Food Access: Challenges and Solutions Brought on by COVID-19

Hospitals and Health Care Systems

Hospital staff wear protective gear to protect them from an Ebola virus infection in the emergency department of Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, New York, October 8, 2014

Adrees Latif/Reuters

COMMENTARY: The COVID-19 Pandemic and the ACA Supreme Court Case

COMMENTARY: COVID-19: A Stress Test for a Health Care System Already Under Stress

REPORT: Does the U.S. Need to Strengthen the System of Care for Infectious Disease?

COMMENTARY: Coronavirus, Telemedicine, and Dustbusters

Impact on Businesses and the Economy

A man wears a mask while walking past the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, March 17, 2020

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

COMMENTARY: The Social Distancing Economy: Q&A with RAND Experts

TESTIMONY: Assessment of COVID-19’s Impact on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

COMMENTARY: The Economic Wallop of COVID-19: Q&A with RAND Experts

COMMENTARY: How to Reopen America

View more research »

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RAND Congressional Resources Staff

Jayme Fuglesten
Director, Office of Congressional Relations

Experts and Research Available to You

Members of Congress and staff can receive free copies of RAND reports and engage with researchers. To request reports, briefings, or meetings, or to invite researchers to testify, please contact:

ocr@rand.org or

(703) 413-1100, ext. 5643.

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