Course Content
- Start Date: 6/10/20
- Category: Communicable Disease
- Arizona Surge Line Presentation
- Feedback Evaluation
Enrollment options
The Arizona Surge Line is a 24/7 toll-free call line that expedites the transfers of patients with COVID-19 across the state of Arizona, load-leveling, and protecting hospitals. The Arizona Surge Line was created and protocolized by the collaboration between Chief Medical Officers and Hospital Transfer Centers across the state and continues to shift and expand over time. The first strategy focused on transfers to higher levels of care and later expanded to lower levels of care to increase the availability of hospital beds. There are now real-time clinical consultations offered, backup transportation provided, a dashboard of all available beds in post-acute care facilities offered, and a novel surge staffing initiative is currently being implemented. The Arizona Surge Line has been referenced extensively in the press by the hospitals themselves and has been partially credited for the sheer amount of collaboration between systems, counties, county, and federal facilities.
Learning Objectives:
Learn how the load-leveling of resource-heavy patients across hospitals in the state was a collaborative, beneficial project that kept the healthcare system afloat in a state
Consider how a similar model could be implemented in public health departments across the country for a minimal cost
Explore how a centralized transfer line could be leveraged in other public health emergencies that would cause stress on the healthcare system
Target Audience: Public Health Professionals
Duration: ~ 25 minutes
Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES
Format: Web-based Training, Self-Study
Created/ Updated: 8/2020
Presenter: Lisa Villarroel, MD, MPH
Dr. Lisa Villarroel serves as the Medical Director for the Division of Public Health Preparedness at the Arizona Department of Health Services. She received her Bachelors in Biology at Princeton University and her Doctor of Medicine at Northwestern University before getting her Master’s in Public Health and becoming board certified in Family Medicine in Phoenix, Arizona. At the Department, she has served as the Medical Director for the Arizona emergency response to Ebola, Zika, Opioid and COVID-19 Crises. She was a lead for the Arizona Opioid Prescribing Guidelines(2018), the Arizona Pain and Addiction Curriculum(2018), the Arizona Surge Line, and the Arizona Surge Staffing Initiative. In addition to her work at the health department, she is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and a practicing locum tenens.
Skill Level: Beginner
CHES Event ID#: SS99036_ASLTS
Category 1 Credits: 0.5
Continuing Competency Credits: 0
Advanced Credits: 0
Level 1: No
Level 2: No
Level 3: No
Primary Tier: Tier Three
Secondary Tier: Tier Two
Primary Domain: Leadership and Systems Thinking Skills
Secondary Domain: Policy Development and Program Planning Skills