Spotlight on Corporate Surge Plan

Patient Access and Flow - Spotlight on Corporate Surge Plan

Southlake's Patient Flow Steering Committee is working to help identify systemic patient flow issues and develop, promote and support quality improvement strategies across the organization.

In our last update we shared progress on expectation to pull within the Standardized Admission and Transfer Process project stream, which outlined an updated process including timelines and triggers to pull admitted patients from the Emergency Department or unit to their assigned bed.

Today we are featuring the Corporate Surge Plan. The goal of this project stream is to provide a proactive, efficient surge process, where all staff and physicians understand their role.

Corporate Surge Plan

Medical surge refers to the ability to evaluate and care for a significantly increased volume of patients which challenges or exceeds normal operating capacity.

Southlake’s surge plan was outdated and not reflective of the current situation in the hospital, resulting in inconsistent and disorganized surge, which negatively affects both patients and staff.

The updated Corporate Surge Plan will include three levels with clear triggers and actions based on capacity. The project team worked with programs across the hospital to develop a document outlining the stages of gridlock, using data to determine appropriate triggers for surge moving forward.

Levels and Emergency Department (ED) Surge Triggers

Level	ED Trigger
Level 1 (Conventional Response)	No bed admits: 20 or less Physician initial assessment times: greater than 60 minutes
Level 2 (Contingency Response)	No bed admits: 21 or more, 30 or less Red zone open: more than 6 patients Patient volume/crowding in the ED: between 80-100 patients
Level 3 (Crisis Response)	All contingency criteria above No bed admits: 31 or more Patient volume/crowding in the ED: 110 patients or more

Each program will have their own individual surge plan using a standard template outlining roles and responsibilities for staff in each level of surge, including the patient flow manager, unit manager, clinical coordinator, physicians, and support services supervisor. The entire team will understand the next steps when triggers are reached.

The final plan will include all program surge plans combined into one document.

If you have any questions about the Corporate Surge Plan or process, please contact the project leads, Liz Lalingo (llalingo@southlake.ca) or Katrina Scott (kscott@southlake.ca).

Next Steps

The Patient Flow Steering Committee will continue to be open and transparent with the organization regarding ongoing updates in each of the priority projects. We are excited to provide you with more information as work progresses and we move towards implementation.

As always, we appreciate your engagement and feedback.