JAMA article highlights ‘5s framework’ for simplifying policy and operational considerations for COVID-19 surge planning

In an article published last week in JAMA, Jonathan Perlin M.D., president, clinical operations, and chief medical officer, HCA Healthcare, discusses how with the COVID-19 pandemic, “the less appreciated ravage has been excess morbidity and mortality from patients who have forgone essential care due to patient fears of contracting COVID-19 in health care settings and to policy makers’ restrictions of care activities to ensure capacity” for COVID-19 patients.

“Preserving that capacity is well intended, but what is missing from the interface between policy makers and the clinician community is a mutually understood framework for contemplating triggers for responsible deceleration of non-COVID-19 activities to manage the community COVID-19 load,” writes Perlin, who is a former AHA Board Chair. “In caring for more than 80,000 COVID-19 inpatients in HCA Healthcare’s multistate health system, the 5S Framework — Surge, Space, (life) Support, Staffing, and Supplies — that we developed has proved useful in making such decisions.”