Today the Department of Health Services along with the State Emergency Operations Center launched hospital gating criteria as part of the Badger Bounce Back Plan. The criteria, developed with input from  the Wisconsin Hospital Association and the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, sets hospital metrics to be able to move into Phase 1 of the Badger Bounce Back Plan.

“The Badger Bounce Back plan is our road map to turning the dial in Wisconsin,” said Secretary-designee Andrea Palm. “Ensuring we do not overwhelm our hospital capacity is integral to that plan, and having this hospital gating criteria in place makes that a more attainable goal.”

Hospital gating criteria address both patient care and hospital staff health. The metrics set the following goals:

• 95% of hospitals affirm that they can treat all patients without crisis care.
• 95% of all hospitals affirm that they have arranged for testing for all symptomatic clinical staff treating patients at the hospital per CDC guidelines.
• Downward trend of COVID-19 cases among health care workers calculated weekly.

Key to these metrics is the definition of “crisis care,” which is characterized by the Institute of Medicine as “extreme operating conditions.” To determine whether or not a hospital is operating with or without “crisis care,” the following questions will be monitored daily:

• Is the facility damaged/unsafe, or are non-patient care areas are being used by the facility for patient care?
• Are trained staff unavailable or unable to adequately care for the volume of patients even with extension techniques?
• Are critical supplies lacking, resulting in reallocation of life-sustaining resources and/or other extreme operating conditions?

An affirmative answer to all three of these questions for three or more consecutive days will indicate that a hospital is operating under that provision of crisis care.

The metrics concerning testing of hospital staff will be monitored weekly by affirming the following statement:

• For the past week, the hospital has arranged for testing all symptomatic clinical staff treating patients at the hospital, per CDC guidelines.

Data from the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System (WEDSS) will be used to determine the weekly trend of COVID-19 cases among health care workers.

Data to measure gating criteria are still being collected and will be available on Friday, May 8.