The Johns Hopkins Capacity Command Center rises to the challenge

The Johns Hopkins Capacity Command Center, which launched in 2016, was the first of its kind within the health-care system. The command center’s visual dashboards allow for workers to analyze real-time information, such as occupancies, operating room schedules and emergency department capacitance across the entire hospital. Real-time analytics process data as soon as it comes into the database, helping users make decisions without delay.

Getting patients into hospital beds requires coordination and communication among different groups within the center. The Hopkins Access Line provides transportation services; the Hopkins Communication Lifeline team dispatches helicopters and ambulances; and the admitting team allows successful tracking of patients’ records and progress. Over the course of five years, two more groups were created to support the daily functioning of the command center. The Supplemental Staffing Unit provides more staffing flexibility, and the systems engineering and analytics team uses machine learning and advanced simulation modeling to predict capacities within the next two weeks.

When COVID-19 hit, the command center has been able to inform decision making about possible virus trends and the corresponding responses in staffing and COVID-19-unit allocations.