Experimental studies on performance of ventilators stored in the Strategic National Stockpile.

Background: The Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a collaborative initiative with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to gain a better understanding of ventilators that are used during national emergencies. This initiative was intended to test reliability of ventilator devices stored long term in the CDC Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and also used by the Department of Defense. These ventilators are intended to be used by trained operators to provide ventilatory support to adult and pediatric populations under diverse environmental conditions.

Assessing the Capacity of the US Health Care System to Use Additional Mechanical Ventilators During a Large-Scale Public Health Emergency.

Objective: A large-scale public health emergency, such as a severe influenza pandemic, can generate large numbers of critically ill patients in a short time. We modeled the number of mechanical ventilators that could be used in addition to the number of hospital-based ventilators currently in use.

Methods: We identified key components of the health care system needed to deliver ventilation therapy, quantified the maximum number of additional ventilators that each key component could support at various capacity levels (ie, conventional, contingency, and crisis), and determined the constraining key component at each capacity level.

Strategic national stockpile: overview and ventilator assets.

Acquiring a resupply of critical medical assets following a national emergency will be crucial to saving lives. The Strategic National Stockpile is a national repository of various medications, vaccines, antidotes, and medical/surgical equipment that would be used to augment federal, state, and local public health agencies in the event of a terrorist attack or other public health emergency. Portable ventilators are included in the stockpile Managed Inventory.