AHRQ Update: Now Available - Report and Tools to Identify and Run Alternate Care Facilities

Report and Tools to Identify and Run Alternate Care Facilities
A recently released report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality explains how to select and operate alternate care facilities -- locations that can easily and quickly be equipped to augment or replace health care services when hospitals and other traditional care sites are inoperable or overwhelmed.

The evidence-based report, Disaster Alternate Care Facilities [http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/acfselection/dacfrep.htm]: Selection and Operation, includes input from planning and preparedness experts in public, private and government sectors who have real-world experience in standing up and running alternate care facilities. It includes:

· A template to develop an operations manual.
· Staffing recommendations for various types of alternate care facilities.
· Equipment and supply options for planning and operation.

The report supports two Web-based interactive tools that provide user-customized plans to implement key components discussed in the report: site selection and the transfer of patients. The tools are: Disaster Alternate Care Facility Selection Tool (http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/acfselection/acftool/) and Alternate Care Facility Patient Selection Tool (http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/acfselection/pselectmatrix/).

http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/acfselection/acftool/(S(bpne53zo55jztn453ugxhs55))/Default.aspx

The resources were developed for AHRQ through a contract with Denver Health with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration. They update an alternate care facility selection tool developed by Denver Health for AHRQ in 2004. All the resources are Web-based and can be accessed through the AHRQ Web site at http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/acfselection/dacfrep.htm.

AHRQ has developed more than 60 emergency preparedness-related resources; for more details, visit: http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/.