The Surge Capacity for People in Emergencies (SCOPE) study in Australasian hospitals

Hospital surge capacity is defined as the ability to provide acute care to both critical and non-critical mass casualties simultaneously, and is a marker of the ability to deliver emergency care in a disaster situation. At present, there are no established standards of appropriate physical or human preparedness targets for Australasian hospitals. This study demonstrates that physical assets in Australasian public hospitals do not meet US hospital preparedness benchmarks for mass casualty incidents. We recommend national agreement on disaster preparedness benchmarks and periodic publication of hospital performance indicators to enhance disaster preparedness