It’s easy and somewhat commonplace to liken healthcare to a widget factory, to boil it down to inputs and outputs; to capacity, productivity, and efficiency. I was reminded of this at last week’s international quality and safety forum, jointly hosted by BMJ and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The event was held at the ExCel, London’s homage to the austere corridor world of Blake’s 7 —and the site of a Nightingale hospital at the height of the covid pandemic. The Nightingale hospital was assembled in rapid time and added to hospital bed capacity. But that extra bed capacity went unused, because hospital capacity isn’t just about beds. It also requires, for example, trained staff and appropriate equipment. Counting the number of beds alone, it turns out, isn’t especially …

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为什么医院容量比床位容量更复杂

将医疗保健比作小部件工厂，将其归结为输入和输出，这很简单，也有些常见。能力、生产力和效率。上周由 BMJ 和医疗保健改进研究所联合主办的国际质量和安全论坛让我想起了这一点。该活动在伦敦 ExCel 举行，这是对《布莱克七世》中简朴的走廊世界的致敬，也是新冠疫情最严重时的南丁格尔医院所在地。南丁格尔医院迅速组建完毕，并增加了医院床位容量。但额外的床位容量并没有被使用，因为医院的容量不仅仅是床位。例如，它还需要训练有素的工作人员和适当的设备。事实证明，仅计算床位数量并不是特别……