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COVID-19: A Poor Use of Specialized Resources

This error is repeated time and again in disasters.

This issue of the New York Times podcast, The Daily has to do primarily with the differences in care and outcomes between public and private hospitals in New York during the height of the pandemic there -- earlier this spring. See The Mistakes New York Made.

Embedded in that podcast is a discussion about the use of the additional hospital spaces that were added on an emergency basis. They point out the poor use of these specialized resources -- basically lack of use. Each doctor getting paid $600 an hour, hmm, should have gone to medical school!

Really though, this is the issue for all disasters. There is a poor use of specialized resources. Too many are requested, those that come are not employed in a timely manner, or for the major purposes of their team design. It happens again and again -- not just in New York for COVID-19.

All emergency managers should be aware of this recurring problem. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.