Stress-test a stretchers shortage by proving that each hold window and restore rule can place delayed stretcher requests inside the planned move lane, survive override pressure, and avoid trapping transport teams inside a green inventory slide that hides long-lived soft holds.
Stretchers shortages often list an equipment checklist while leaving restore behavior, override authority, and abort ownership implicit. Those edges decide whether a late stretcher stays inside the transport packet or leaves a broken boarding path live under peak volume. The exercise should follow actual stretcher inventories, unit maps, and escalation paths rather than a clean equipment dashboard.
Build the shortage packet
List every stretcher shortage class with its response window, waive rule, override behavior, owners, and notification channels. Mark paths that cannot reverse without a manual amendment. Attach the last three stretchers shortage incidents with raw timelines and any waivers. Include the source of truth for open stretcher counts during the observation window.
- A specialty stretcher class keeps a side-channel while the aggregate inventory dashboard stays green.
- A restore has already left a transport desk without a trusted shortage state.
- The primary stretcher dashboard lags beyond the planned observation window.
- An operator skips a shortage gate because a boarding cutoff is near.
- Automated and human divert messages collide under the new shortage rule.
For each drill, identify detection time, unit impact, containment, and the authority to force a stretchers shortage rollback. Require commands and dashboard links in the runbook.
Close the spike with named owners
Name detect, hold, divert, abort, and restore owners with exit conditions. Write the point after which a stuck stretcher would require a different move plan, then review whether that action is still permitted. Capture maximum acceptable dwell in measurable units, including which move classes are excluded from the shortage path and why.
Run the package in Pingpong with transport, ED ops, nursing, and materials seats. Ask transport which patient decision becomes unsafe first if stretchers still stick after the claimed window. Ask ED ops whether macros can absorb a forced override. Ask owners to show the exact stretcher version or export used as the exit condition.
Related reviews include the transport ops lead seat, a porter dispatch rule, a lift-team SLA, and a boarding crisis stress test. Browse the war-game decisions hub for adjacent controls.
Authorize the published shortage path only after a timed drill restores usable hold hygiene inside the documented budget without an undocumented manual step.