Research teams at Johns Hopkins National Center for the Study of Preparedness and Catastrophic Even Response (Baltimore) have created web-based applications to help emergency departments and first responders deal with patient influxes resulting from public health disasters, according to a report from MHA News Now.
The PACER applications are designed to ease operational strain during events ranging from flu pandemics to terrorist attacks, helping gauge discharge efficiency, bed space and response capabilities. The apps include:
- EMCAPS 2.0. The app is an update to the original Electronic Mass Casualty Assessment and Planning Scenarios program. It allows the user to estimate probable casualties from various types of disasters.
- Surge. Surge simulates hospital capacity and patient flow based on various capacity simulations.
- FluCast. This app estimates on a per-week basis the number of flu patients a hospital is likely to see, based on historical data. The knowledge may assist hospitals with adequate staffing levels, according to the report.
The apps are free and available for download here.
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