Disaster Management Systems for Health Care Disaster preparedness in health care continues to transform. Events such as hurricane Katrina, the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013 and the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 serve as examples on disastrous events. Health care facilities must prepare for these and other types of highly difficult events that can stress the organization and test the facilities disaster plan. The saying, prepare for the worst and hope for the best serves to illustrate how health care institutions must plan and prepare for unforeseen events. Health institutions are on the front lines when disaster strikes. Whether it is capacity and capabilities or keeping operations up and running, every health care facility …show more content…
This game plan helps educate and assure reactions to various events are understood and rehearsed. No game plan can account for all events, however it can assist with general knowledge on how to respond to these stressful situations. Having a well understood game plan can improve the speed and quality of the response helping to mitigate the impact. Maintaining and practicing the game helps everyone understand their role and responsibilities toward preparedness and execution. This understanding can avoid a loss of precious seconds critical to successful patient outcomes. This analysis will evaluate the aspect of disaster planning within the health care facility. It will identify approaches and responsibilities for forecasting the occurrence of these events. The analysis will discuss management’s responsibilities in planning for these events and the legal aspects surrounding disaster preparedness. The analysis will conclude with a discussion on how communication and practice are critical elements to ensuring adequate understanding of the health institutions game plan. …show more content…
Recognition of what could go wrong through forecasting and historical references in conjunction to establishing areas of weakness, helps facilitate a game plan of preparedness. These actions can help assure critical treatments necessary for life sustaining events are not interrupted. Failure to conduct due diligence in the planning and mitigation efforts can lead to undesirable consequences. This in turn can result in legal battles for failure to be responsible. Health care institutions are required to meet certain minimal standards as a way to demonstrate responsible actions. The disaster plan helps mitigate the consequence of undesirable events for areas under the facilities realm of control. Failure to conduct this planning will translate into loss of life and greater costs associated with insurance coverage (Carroll,
"Develop a Contingency Plan." AAFP. American Academy of Family Physicians, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. .
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
The Florida Catastrophic Planning (FLCP) Initiative was conducted under the auspices of the National Catastrophic Planning Process (CPP), as mandated by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which was amended by the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007. The Act of 2007 expanded the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in preparing for catastrophes as a result of the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina (Ruback et al., 2010). FEMA was given specific requirements to better prepare for catastrophic disasters and the FLCP planning process embodies one the first major tests of the CCP.
The goals include increasing nurses’ awareness of their roles and responsibilities in preparing for and responding to a disaster. There are web-based courses available for professionals who are not necessarily planning to deploy to a disaster site but working in hospitals, schools or long-term care settings. These individuals could help with the long-range planning of patients involved in a disaster. The course is designed to protect the nurse and the public through the use of universal precautions, protective equipment, evidence collection and isolation precautions. These are areas that the emergency nurse may not consider when volunteering on the front line of a disaster (Stokowski, 2012). Other areas of the course include how to prepare for a disaster, who to notify when an event is unfolding, the assessment, diagnosing and treating of injuries and illnesses, incorporating clinical judgment skills, and supporting the community after the disaster (Orr,
An emergency is any event that could affect the safety of patients, staff, and visitors, or the hospital environment, or negatively affect the hospital’s ability to provide services to the community. The Responsibilities and Roles of Personnel In many ways, the responsibility of risk management belongs to everyone from senior leadership to the employees. A culture of safety should begin anew with every shift, regardless of the job description and for those delivering direct care, with every patient.
Due to the horrendous events of terrorist attacks that have taken place over the last ten or so years, emergency management now, not only prepares and trains for natural events, but includes planning for terrorist/weapons of mass destruction events in greater detail. New responsibilities are being placed on emergency management managers and responders. More communities, states, local governments and businesses are seeking assistance in planning for terrorist attacks.
The major preparedness measures taken include strategic planning for disaster, making changes in procurement procedures, developing a communication plan, and investigating insurance coverage.
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2010).Introduction to emergency management. (4th ed., pp. 1-26). Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Disastrous events can occur in any moment throughout our lives whether involved as a victim or a provider of care for such event. The role of healthcare professionals, nurses and personnel alike is important to ensure proper patient care, especially for events that are quick and sudden. These events are categorized as Mass Casualty Events (MCE), and they are known to overwhelm local resources of surrounding facilities, consisting of injured or ill patients in need of immediate care (Smith, 2010). Recent incidents such as the Boston Marathon Bombing (2013), Hurricane Katrina (2005), and the Chatsworth Metrolink Collision (2008) are examples of such events.
Moreover, I will endeavor to promote safe and better working environment by identification of obstacles and challenges. I will achieve this by identifying these challenges by foreseeing and developing a contingency plan. This is essential as it aids in improving the working environment for all patients and healthcare
Disaster Recovery Planning is the critical factor that can prevent headaches or nightmares experienced by an organization in times of disaster. Having a disaster recovery plan marks the difference between organizations that can successfully manage crises with minimal cost, effort and with maximum speed, and those organizations that cannot. By having back-up plans, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also detailed disaster recovery plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in recovery efforts should undertake, an organization can improve their recovery time and minimize the disrupted time for their normal business functions. Thus it is essential that disaster recovery plans are carefully laid out and carefully updated regularly. Part of the plan should include a system where regular training occurs for network engineers and managers. In the disaster recovery process extra attention should also be paid to training any new employees who will have a critical role in this function. Also, the plan should require having the appropriate people actually practice what they would do to help recover business function should a disaster occur. Some organizations find it helpful to do this on a quarterly or semi-annual basis so that the plan stays current with the organization’s needs.
A disaster is not a simple emergency. A disaster is that point when a human is suffering and has a devastating situation which they themselves need help from others to survive. Regardless if natural or human caused, a disaster causes a vast amount of issues in the community. In the simulation of “Disaster in Franklin County reveals that preparation is key and even with that more can be addressed. A community nurse remains an essential part of the team involved in a disaster including before, during, and after the event.
In order to fully understand the concept of a contingency plan, there are a few aspects which need to be explored. We must first define what a contingency plan is, followed by an explanation of why contingency plans are so valuable. Furthermore, an analysis of the implementation of contingency plans should be performed. Lastly, a comparison of such plans from other industries should be done, in order to comprehend the differences in both purpose and criteria.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential disasters that could affect a community and cause mass causalities. Further discussion will include who is responsible for the management preparedness, what barriers must be considered and finally this paper will discuss the health care facilities role in emergency supplies and care of the patient in a disaster situation.
The increase in unpredictable natural disasters events for a decade has led to put the disaster preparedness as a central issue in disaster management. Disaster preparedness reduces the risk of loss lives and injuries and increases a capacity for coping when hazard occurs. Considering the value of the preparatory behavior, governments, local, national and international institutions and non-government organizations made some efforts in promoting disaster preparedness. However, although a number of resources have been expended in an effort to promote behavioural preparedness, a common finding in research on natural disaster is that people fail to take preparation for such disaster events (Paton, 2005; Shaw 2004; Spittal, et.al, 2005; Tierney, 1993; Kenny, 2009; Kapucu, 2008; Coppola and Maloney, 2009). For example, the fact that nearly 91% of Americans live in a moderate to high risk of natural disasters, only 16% take a preparation for natural disaster (Ripley, 2006).