Alternate Care Facilities Project

A concept paper and site assessment tool from Seattle-King County provide specific and concrete information on establishing alternate care facilities (ACF). The concept paper focuses on useful issues for public health agencies and their healthcare partners to consider when developing initial plans for ACFs in a community. These include: 1) Definitions of ACFs; 2) Scenarios when ACFs may be opened; 3) ACF objectives; 4) Triggers and activation criteria for ACF implementation; and 5) Scope of care. The triggers for implementation of ACFs are particularly useful, and the trigger criteria allow ACF activation to occur in stages. The tools also provide an approach that is described in small, logical, and manageable steps that may greatly assist hospitals' planning on this issue. Although these materials would need to be revised and adapted to meet the needs of a particular community, the information brings clarity to the enormous and complicated decision of activating ACFs during a pandemic.