Alternative Care Facility
Historically, alternate care facilities (ACF) or alternate care sites (ACS) have been established in the United States when natural disasters, large-scale accidents, or terrorist attacks have caused casualties beyond the ability of hospitals to handle them.
During emergency events, healthcare systems must quickly convert from the existing patient capacity to surge capacity -- a significant increase beyond usual capacity -- to rapidly respond to the needs of affected individuals. ACF/ACS have served a variety of functions intended to relieve pressure on local healthcare systems by serving as triage stations, urgent care centers, or inpatient facilities when local healthcare infrastructure is damaged.
