Alternate care site

The Javits Center in New York City has been used as an ACS during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An alternate care site (ACS) is a medical treatment facility established in a non-traditional setting during a public-health crisis (or other event causing strain on local medical resources) as a means of providing additional capacity to deliver medical care within a given area.[1][2]: 1  The term encompasses both civilian-operated medical facilities established in non-traditional places such as hotels, gymnasiums, and convention centers, or other "structure[s] of opportunity," as well as military field medical units being used for public-health purposes.[2]: 2 [3][4][5] Usually, the option of establishing an ACS becomes relevant once the scale of an emergency extends beyond a single metropolitan area.[6]: 4  Though commonly established (or, at a minimum, overseen) by public-health authorities, ACSes can also be established by private entities, such as large employers.[7]: 7  ACSes have been widely used as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in other recent crises such as the Western African Ebola virus epidemic.[4][8]

  1. ^ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "Alternate Care Sites (ACS)". Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Federal Healthcare Resilience Taskforce (June 30, 2020). "Alternate Care Site Toolkit" (PDF) (3rd ed.).
  3. ^ U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (April 23, 2020). "Considerations for Alternate Care Sites".
  4. ^ a b Meyer, Gregg S.; Blanchfield, Bonnie B.; Bohmer, Richard M.J.; Mountford, James; Vanderwagen, W. Craig (May 22, 2020). "Alternative Care Sites for the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Early U.S. and U.K. Experience". NEJM Catalyst. doi:10.1056/CAT.20.0224 (inactive November 1, 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
  5. ^ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (April 1, 2020). "Army Corps, Partners Establish Alternate Care Facility at Javits Center; First Patients Arrive". Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  6. ^ Deloitte (2020). "Establishing an Alternate Care Site (ACS)" (PDF). Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  7. ^ Institute of Medicine (2012). Handling, Dan; Altevogt, Bruce M.; Viswanathan, Kristin; Gostin, Lawrence O. (eds.). Crisis Standards of Care: A Systems Framework for Catastrophic Disaster Response (PDF). Vol. 5: Alternate Care Systems. Washington: The National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-25347-5.
  8. ^ American Society for Health Care Engineering (November 6, 2020). "Converting alternate care sites to patient space options".