Bed Surge Capacity in Saudi Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Fahad Alqahtani,Jalal Alowais,Tareef Alaama,Anas Khan,Hani Jokhdar

doi:10.1017/dmp.2021.117

Abstract

To assess the hospital beds and intensive care unit (ICU) beds with a ventilator surge capacity of the health system in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This study used relevant data from the National Health Emergency Operation Center to estimate general hospital and ICU bed surge capacity and tipping points under 3 distinct transmission scenarios. The study results reveal that hospitals in the KSA need to be supplied with additional 4372 hospital beds to care for COVID-19 positive cases if the pandemic continues over a 6 months' period. At the same time, it requires additional 2192 or 1461 hospital beds if the pandemic persists over a 12- or 18-month period, respectively, to manage hospitalized COVID-19 overloads. The health system surge capacity would suffer from a shortage of 1600, 797, and 540 ICU beds under the 3 transmission scenarios to absorb critical and intensive care COVID-19 cases. Our findings highlight the urgent need for additional hospital and ICU beds in the face of critical COVID-19 cases in KSA. The study recommends further assessment measures to the health system surge capacity to keep the Saudi health system prepared during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

Pandemics generally exhibit a crucial challenge and a unique threat to the country’s health care system; they could overwhelm the health care system by the substantial increase in the demand and supply for health services.[1,2,3] pandemic preparedness necessitates proper infrastructure and capacity as a critical aspect of a country’s emergency response.[1]
The present study used the data of general hospital beds, intensive care unit (ICU) beds, and ventilators from the National Health Emergency Operation Center WebEOC software controlled by the ministry of health (MOH)
55 171 beds were already functioning across all hospitals, and 3728 beds accompanied by oxygen supply were embedded in field hospitals in response to COVID-19

Summary

Introduction

Pandemics generally exhibit a crucial challenge and a unique threat to the country’s health care system; they could overwhelm the health care system by the substantial increase in the demand and supply for health services.[1,2,3] pandemic preparedness necessitates proper infrastructure and capacity as a critical aspect of a country’s emergency response.[1]. The hard components consist of health workforces, such as nurses, doctors, emergency medical personnel, pharmacists, as well as infrastructure, equipment, and supplies. The soft components consist of a digital health system, such as well coordination and management, guidelines and protocols to prevent and mitigate infection rates, and effective communication.[7]

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