This article will review the use of temporary hospitals to augment the healthcare system as one solution for dealing with a surge of patients related to war, pandemic disease outbreaks, or natural disaster. The experiences highlighted in this article are those of North Carolina (NC) over the past 150 years, with a special focus on the need following the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks. It will also discuss the development of a temporary hospital system from concept to deployment, highlight recent developments, emphasize the need to learn from past experiences, and offer potential solutions for assuring program sustainability. Historically, when a particular situation called for a temporary hospital, one was created, but it was usually specific for the event and then dismantled. As with the case with many historical events, the details of the 9/11 attacks will fade into memory, and there is a concern that the impetus which created the current temporary hospital program may fade, as well. By developing a broader and more comprehensive approach to disaster responses through all-hazards preparedness, it is reasonable to learn from these past experiences, improve the understanding of current threats, and develop a long-term strategy to sustain these resources for future disaster medical needs.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 October 2014.
All research outputs
#23,359,763
of 34,457,357 outputs
Outputs from American Journal of Disaster Medicine
#132
of 197 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#175,888
of 275,551 outputs
Outputs of similar age from American Journal of Disaster Medicine
#3
of 5 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,457,357 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 30th percentile – i.e., 30% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 197 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.8. This one is in the 31st percentile – i.e., 31% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 275,551 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 34th percentile – i.e., 34% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 2 of them.
