Transparency as a Solution for the Hospital Capacity Problem

COVID dramatically clarified a shortcoming in our great healthcare system, but like everything in the world, it has its shortcomings. What we see through the apex of COVID is that many hospitals in hotspot areas cannot provide an adequate supply of beds. Although the United States spends much more than other countries on health care, we have only 2.8 beds per thousand whereas other OECD Nations have many more. Germany, for example, has eight beds per thousand. But even when we tried to make up for the shortage of these beds, the culture of the hospital system was such that many were not used to sharing. New York City, for example, erected a pop-up hospital for COVID patients, but many of the beds remained empty because these emergency hospitals were not connected to the broader health system, and all too many hospitals failed to send their patients to available beds and integrate them into a chain of referrals and ongoing care. This problem can be addressed by requiring hospitals to delineate their plans to meet surges in demand via a FASB standard. The required disclosure will likely motivate hospitals to develop a network to provide surge capacity through cooperation among them.