Best practices of hospital security planning for patient surge--a comparative analysis of three national systems.

This paper examines three international healthcare security systems as they relate to patient surge in Canada, Israel, and the United States. Its purpose is to compare the systems, to highlight unique characteristics that define those systems, and to initiate the development of best practices that transcend national boundaries. Several significant national characteristics of demographics, healthcare systems, and political climate, among others, present challenges to translating best practices among these three countries. However, we have found that best practice strategies exist in areas of communications, coordination, building design, space adaptability, and patient routing (both from the community to the hospital, as well as within the hospital) that can be shared and incorporated into the healthcare preparedness efforts in all three countries.