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Hospital Medical Surge Capacity Assessment and Planning Tools for Disaster Response: A Systematic Review and
Hisham Hassan Ali Dinar1, Omer Abdel Fattah Othman2, Ives Hubloue3
1Directorate of Emergencies, The National Health Emergency Operations Center, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
|May 19, 2026
Summary
Hospital surge capacity assessment tools show moderate preparedness improvements. Simulation tools are most effective, while resource strategies need adaptation for disaster response planning.
Area of Science:
- Disaster medicine and public health preparedness.
- Healthcare system resilience and emergency management.
Background:
- Hospital surge capacity is critical for effective disaster response.
- Existing assessment and planning tools for surge capacity require further validation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and evaluate the reliability, validity, and applicability of hospital surge capacity tools.
- To compare the effectiveness of different types of surge capacity assessment tools.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review of 24 Q1 studies following PRISMA guidelines.
- PICO framework application and ROBINS-E for risk of bias assessment.
- Meta-analysis using a random-effects model to determine pooled effect sizes (ES).
Main Results:
- A combined ES of 0.74 indicated moderate improvement in disaster preparedness.
- Simulation tools demonstrated high consistency (ES=0.81), while resource strategies showed greater variability (ES=0.71).
- Publication bias and substantial heterogeneity were identified across studies.
Conclusions:
- Simulation-based tools are superior for enhancing hospital surge capacity.
- Resource strategies necessitate context-specific adjustments for optimal disaster planning.
- Future research should focus on equity and real-world implementation of surge capacity strategies.
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