Objectives: Load balancing of constrained healthcare resources has become a critical aspect of assuring access to care during periods of pandemic related surge. These impacts include patient surges, staffing shortages, and limited access to specialty resources. This research focuses on the creation and work of a novel statewide coordination center, the Washington Medical Coordination Center (WMCC), whose primary goal is the load balancing of patients across the healthcare continuum of Washington State.
Methods: This article discusses the origins, development, and operations of the WMCC including key partners, cooperative agreements, and structure necessary to create a patient load balancing system on a statewide level.
Results: As of April 21, 2022, the WMCC received 3821 requests from Washington State hospitals. Nearly 90% were received during the pandemic surge. Nearly 75% originated from rural hospitals that are most often limited in their ability to transfer patients when referral centers are also overwhelmed.
Conclusions: The WMCC served as an effective tool to carry out patient load balancing activities during the COVID-19 pandemic surge in Washington State. It (the WMCC) has been shown to be an equity enhancing, cost effective means of managing healthcare surge events across a broad geographic region.
Keywords: Covid-19; Washington medical coordination center; load balancing; medical operations coordination center; pandemic.