‘This is our day’: How Tufts Medical Center does the Boston Marathon

Abstract

Each year on the third Monday in April, athletes, volunteers and spectators alike celebrate the running of the Boston Marathon. With a course that spans eight cities and towns over 26.2 miles, the Marathon is an annual large-scale event that requires state-wide efforts to ensure the health and well-being of all participants. No stranger to events of this magnitude, Boston also hosts one of the nation‘s largest New Year’s Eve celebrations, is home to a wide variety of St. Patrick‘s Day events, including the annual South Boston parade, and is renowned for its nationally broadcast Independence Day festivities. This document outlines how Tufts Medical Center (Tufts MC), a 415-bed academic medical facility in the heart of downtown Boston, manages large-scale planned events such as the Boston Marathon from an individual hospital administration perspective. This well-tested but dynamic response strategy to events of this size is a product of robust hospital preparations, streamlined operations and liaising with external agencies. Successful implementation of this plan allows for accommodation of a greater than 40 per cent increase in Emergency Department (ED) daily volume: flexibility utilised not only on Marathon Monday, but also during additional large-scale events in Boston throughout the year.