Testifying before a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security subcommittees February 8, 2006, Dr. David C. Seaberg of the board of directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians presented a 10-point call to Congress to create "Surge Capacity" to prepare for pandemics of natural causes, biological terrorism, and other terrorist or natural disasters.

Just hours later, a faulty sensor at the Capitol caused a lock-down when it erroneously reported detection of a neurological agent, emphasizing concerns that any delays in addressing the issue could literally be fatal for thousands of Americans.

The ACEP plan calls for:

1. Increase the surge capacity of ED's by ending the practice of "boarding" patients in the ED's and create funding strategies for surge capacity in inpatient and intensive care units.

2. Real-time data monitoring to detect syndromic indicators, hospital and emergency department capacity, and ambulance diversion status.

3. Government recognition that the health system is part of the critical infrastructure that must be protected for effective response and recovery in a disaster.

4. Hospitals should be required to defer elective admissions during a disaster or health emergency until the crisis has passed, and the government should provide funding to off-set the losses in revenue from that deferral.

5. More coordination of governmental command and control at all levels and across agencies in time of emergency.

6. Creation of a panel of experts to guide national medical preparedness priorities and standards.

7. Funding of hospitals and ED's at a level to assure their ability to deal with their safety-net roles.

8. Funding of hospitals on a sustained basis to assure emergency preparedness for emergency department and hospital disaster preparedness using national benchmarking.

9. Continue to designate emergency physicians and nurses in programs for "first responders" to disasters, acts of terrorism, and epidemics.

10. Passage of HR 3875 "Access To Emergency Medical Services Act" to provide incentives to hospitals to reduce overcrowding and provide reimbursement and liability protection for EMTALA-related care.

The full text is available for download at www.medlaw.com/acepplan.pdf