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How should hospitals prepare for emergencies and disasters
How should hospitals prepare for emergencies and disasters
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Introduction A disaster is one of the biggest challenges that tests the organizational structure of an urgent care clinic. Given that in disaster situations we are under an abnormal condition characterized by confusion, urgency and often danger, it implies planning in advance the care clinic response, in order to minimize the danger of possible damage to the integrity of patients and the security of the building. The internal and external disasters reduce the attention capacity of the institutions [4]. The daily clinical activities are altered and it is of vital importance for the success of the task of facing disasters of different magnitude, to have in advance all the human, physical and technological resources that this deserves. The computer …show more content…
networks of an urgent care clinic and the access to its data can be eliminated without previous warning, as much by the occurrence of natural disasters as by accidents caused by the people. It is impossible to prevent this type of eventuality from happening, but a disaster recovery plan can prepare any organization to adequately deal with the unexpected. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires or floods are not alien to any business environment. In the same way, terrorist attacks and cyber attacks are the order of the day, are one of the main concerns of companies. Disaster Recovery Plan Urgent Care Clinic A disaster is defined as an event or incident that occurs in most cases in a sudden and unexpected, causing intense alterations on the elements presented, represented by the loss of life and health of the population, destruction or loss of property of a community and severe damage to the environment, which exceed the capacity of the community, or the affected society to face the situation through the use of its own resources.
Although access to health is a fundamental right, in a society such as ours, this service is quite limited, the relationship between offer and demand is very unbalanced, since urgent care clinics do not manage to treat all patients who require this service, as a result of a limited budget, corruption and different factors that prevent an adequate provision of this fundamental right. Therefore, it is vital to protect urgent care clinics so that they are prepared for any interruption or catastrophe that threatens the provision of health services and access to emergencies. The Urgent Care Clinic has 4 doctors, 10 nurses and 2 nurse practitioners. It supports its strategic, missionary and evaluation processes with a technological platform implemented more than 13 years ago, which is vulnerable to natural, human and technical …show more content…
threats. The foregoing evidences the need for the Urgent Care Clinic has a disaster recovery plan for information and communication technologies that will mitigate the impact that any eventuality that could jeopardize the integrality and access to the information of the institution, both in physical and electronic media (SIMPKINS 2016) [8]. The recovery plan of Information and Communications Technologies of Urgent Care Clinic includes the following aspects: • Failure of continuity of the Electric Fluid. • Internet service failure. • Failure of the Laboratory Software service. • Failure of the Service Data Checking Rights - Different Payers - Intranet Failure of the telephone communication service. • Failure due to massive virus attacks. The general objective of disaster recovery plan is allowing the agile and structured development that guarantees the continuity of the operations of Information Technology and communications of the Urgent Care Clinic in the face of a critical situation that could threaten, partially or totally, the provision of the service and of which all the officials of the institution are aware (AL-KATTAN and ABBOUD 2009)[6]. The appropriate level of physical security, or degree of security, is a set of actions used to prevent failure and reduce the consequences that may arise from a disaster or eventuality. During abnormal situations such as disasters, natural or provoked, and intentionally or not, the objective of the Information and Communication Technologies Disaster Recovery Plan is to ensure that the Urgent Care Clinic can continue to operate its services. The Systems Professional will carry out the following actions: • Analyze the type of risk and the impact at Urgent Care Clinic. • Determine the priorities of the process, which indicate which are the critical applications and systems at the time of the disaster and the correct process order. • Coordinate with the different people responsible for the recovery plan processes. • Recovery of backup copies. • Ensure the capacity of communications. • Ensure the capacity of the servers. Failure of Internet Service The Urgent Care Clinic has two Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ADSL type internet channels, in any failure of one of the two is replaced by the other. The support is made by professionals in the Systems area. The personnel of Systems should be informed of the occurrence of any failure in the information system; who should have a 24-hour availability 7x24. Failure of The Clinical Laboratory Service The Clinical Laboratory service has automated some clinical analysis procedures through an outsourcing contract with the company Technical Analysis Integral Solutions Ltd, with the Winlab software "Information System for the management of private laboratories" [1]. Only outsourcing company employees can review, uncover and give support on the Urgent Care Clinic computer equipment. Failure of The Service of Databases - Intranet The Urgent Care Clinic has an Intranet system where the databases of the different payers with which the entity has an active contract are available, which allows the Billing staff to check the rights of patients who request services from the Urgent Care Clinic. The recovery disks will be used in the event of a failure [3]. Failure of The Telephone Communication Service The Urgent Care Clinic has a telephone plant, at the moment when there is a cut service by the telephony provider, the Urgent Care Clinic maintenance area immediately communicates with the provider to size the fault and the correction time is expected. Failure by Virus Attack Urgent Care Clinic has a Firewall Server at the entrance of the network to control Internet access and possible attacks that can be made by hackers or malicious crackers, their server has established certain security policies which prevents violations to their information, not allowed access to internet pages to users, there are categories (catalog types of information sites such as nude pages, finance, games, among others.) and policies (profiles are assigned to each of the categories created and assigned to the users determined by groups in the Domain server) given by areas for Internet access, Urgent Care Clinic has a pre-established database for the detection of intruders, there are two antivirus which perform a process of scanning incoming emails according to policies established on the server [9]. Additionally, Urgent Care Clinic’s internal data network is protected by the NOD32 Antivirus, which controls the attack of viruses by the use of USB, CDs, etc connected to the computer equipment of the Urgent Care Clinic (Fichter and Wisniewski 2016)[5]. The staff responsible of the restoration of the service in each one of the computers is the Systems Professional who will establish the following actions: • Identification of the origin of the virus attack. • Impact on computer assets. • Take actions to restore computer assets. • Establish communication with the company that supports the antivirus. • Restore the necessary antivirus services. • Report findings and procedures performed. Recovery Information of Computer Equipment Regarding the recovery of computer assets (Work Files).
Backup copies are processes that are used to save information. It is to say, a user wants to save all the information or part of the information available on the PC up to this moment; will make a backup copy in such a way that it will save the information in some technologically available storage, the urgent care clinic, the Systems area has two of the Servers as Backups administrator (Allen 2004)[2]; for later if a loss occurs in the computer equipment of one of the users and information is lost, from the Systems area the process of restoring the information to the date of the last backup made by the end user can be performed. In order for the process to be functional, users must periodically complete the process according to the indications given by the Systems
area. Conclusion The Disaster Recovery Plan must consider as a preventive mechanism the socialization and knowledge of the same by all the levels of the institution since once an event that affects the integrity, security or access to the information, the training and response of the human resource is presented. Timely is a key factor in responding to the event. It is possible that the Disaster Recovery Plan also requires modifications despite its proper functioning. This occurs when there are substantial changes in the organization itself. It is true that the preparation of a Disaster Recovery Plan requires considerable dedication and the attribution of a series of resources. However, it is a critical factor when it comes to guaranteeing the survival of a company (Omar, Alijani and Mason 2011) [7].
The challenges that all acute care hospitals and facilities faces are the demand for highly specialized services has increased. The US population is constantly aging and the elderly tend to need more acute care services. Because many people lack health insurance, they tend to use emergency rooms in the hospitals as their source of care. The increase demand in acute care prompted hospitals to expand their facility
Ranked third by U.S. News and World Report on the list of “Best Health Care Jobs of 2017”, the Physician Assistant career has a 96 percent job-satisfaction rate, and represents one of the fastest growing jobs in the nation. Created as a position to relieve the job shortage of primary care physicians, Physician Assistants first came to be in the mid-1960s. Since then, the number of PAs in practice has just about doubled with every decade helping to improve health care not just nationally, but on a global level as well. Physician Assistants are licensed to practice medicine, prescribe medication, treat chronic illnesses, and assist in surgery in all 50 states under supervision of a physician. Although some medical practitioners perceive the role
The National response plan outlines four key actions the disaster coordinator should take. They are gaining and maintaining situational awareness, activate and deploy key resources and capabilities, coordinating response actions and demobilizing. Throughout the response it is essential that responders have access to critical information. During the initial response effort the situation is will change rapidly. Situational awareness starts at the incident site. For this reason it is essential that decision makers have access to the right information at the right time. By establishing an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) all key responders are brought ...
Appendix 3. Urgent and Emergency care is a service providing life-saving care (Keogh Review). According to the Francis Report (2013), high mortality rates among patients admitted as emergencies to Stafford Hospital, showed evidence of inadequate care which lead to a full investigation. As a result, medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh was asked by the Prime Minister David Cameron to conduct a complete review of the NHS urgent and emergency care system. It highlighted five key elements for change to ensure success: 1.
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,
When I first heard about Medicine 9119 I thought the class would be an hour per week of medical jargon filled lecturing. I was eager for the class because I anticipated being drowned with new information, however I was also terrified because of how clueless I would be compared to everyone else. Now, after three lectures in this class, I realize that Medicine 9119 will teach me how to better operate in a group of intellectuals, prepare myself in school by strengthening my academic habits, think critically, and recognize multiple disciplines in a problem. Learning about word dumping, flow charts, and concept maps has helped me see how to improve my study habits. I can practice drawing flow charts and concepts maps while reading a material, or if I want to draw them
This paper will show how assessment is a core part of the client’s treatment. It will show how assessment is done at the beginning of the treatment process but, will allow you to see that assessment is a continuing process. It results from a combination of focused interviews, testing, and record reviews. Assessments give the social worker a framework of reference to understand the strengths, weaknesses, problems, and needs of the client for the development of the treatment plan. It provides the social worker with a theory-based framework for generating hypotheses about the client’s experience and behaviors, which in turn helps prepare the basis for a specific treatment intervention. This paper will discuss the assessment tools
Due to the populations current issues with insufficient healthcare coverage, or complete lack of, many patients resort to the ED as primary access and diagnosis thus delaying treatment even further.As a result, emergency departments are providing treatment for medical, surgical, critical, and psychological emergencies. These extended wait times lead to a deterioration of patient health, discounting of the patients chief complaints with the intention of acting more efficiently, and inadvertently, occasionally, causing the spread of communicable diseases. Emergency rooms by definition are 24-hour care access to healthcare, however they are losing the fairness and impartiality to provide equal service to all patients stemming from outrageous wait
The Urgent Matter Collaborative is a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The program was formed to identify, develop, and share innovative approaches, inventions, and models to improve Emergency Department (ED) flow and quality of care. Urgent Matters Collaborative has contributed to ED quality and patient flow improvement by working with hospitals throughout the United States.
Urgent care centers first opened in the United States in the early 1980s (http://www.chcf.org/~/media/MEDIA%20LIBRARY%20Files/PDF/PDF%20N/PDF%20NoAppointmentNecessaryUrgentCareCenters.pdf no appointment needed). The inspiration behind establishing urgent care centers originated when entrepreneurial physicians identified a gap in the industry. As there was a shortage of primary care physicians who lacked flexibility and extended office hours patients were forced to turn to emergency rooms for non-emergency treatment. As a result, emergency rooms became crowded with low risk patients that did not need immediate care. Consequently, overcrowding resulted in long wait times, unsatisfied patients, misdiagnosis, and overworked emergency rooms physicians. Additionally, at least two domains of quality of care, safety and timeliness, are compromised by emergency room crowding (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1553-2712.2008.00295.x/full). Ultimately, in order to remedy such overcrowding urgent care centers were established.
Nevertheless, when patients arrive at the A&E Department, a trained triage nurse will help determine the relative priority due to the patient's condition. There are five categories for nurses to classify, such as critical (immediate treatment), emergency (waiting time within 15 minutes), urgent (waiting time within a half hour), semi-urgent and non-urgent. Yet, it trend to treat the triage nurse as a McDonald’s Customer Service Ambassador in charge of the system carries out smoothly and conveniently. Apart from that, specialist out-patient clinics also have the same problem. In general, patients visit general out-patient clinics or private family doctors which make referrals due to special cases.
In small urgent care clinics, medical directors will have more hands-on leadership and operational responsibilities. They must design, develop and maintain the clinic’s emergency care services. In large urgent care clinics, medical directors will follow established systems and procedures to support management and teams with providing care. They must ensure that the needs of clients and employees are met through measuring performances, training employees and implementing improvements. Urgent care medical directors work closely with other health care organizations to exchange referrals and outsource health care services. Because urgent care clinics deal with many occupational injuries and accidents, they must be familiar with workers’ compensation and OSHA
Sometimes one phase of the emergency management tends to overlap of adjacent phase. The concept of “phases” has been used since the 1930’s to help describe, examine, and understand disasters and to help organize the practice of emergency management. In an article titled Reconsidering the Phases of Disaster, David Neal cites different examples of different researchers using five, six, seven, and up to eight phases long before the four phases became the standard. (Neal 1997) This acknowledges that critical activities frequently cover more than one phase, and the boundaries between phases are seldom precise. Most sources also emphasize that important interrelationships exist among all the ph...
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.
Upon receiving MM in to care I was focused on caring for an acute care client and not one at the end-of-life. In reflection I felt that my client was not going to live much longer, but I did not know it would be only a few short hours after I left my shirt that she did pass away peacefully (this was share with me from a fourth year nursing student who was at her side when she died). Unfortunately I was not able to meet or communicate with MM’s family to help support them through this transition of life. I was able o come to know that MM had 5 supportive children and an elderly husband whom come to visit after my shift. This was comforting to know that they were able to say their good bye. As far implementing healing initiatives, I felt