Health insurers and health reform programs have focused in recent years mainly on finding ways to get rid of costly, little-used acute care hospital beds.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), are now organizing a research project that could increase pressure to keep some of that spare hospital capacity in place.
The researchers are organizing a survey of all hospitals to see how well prepared they are for the mass casualties that might come from bombings, non-bombing explosions, and natural disasters.