Emergency plans in hospitals and healthcare centers are essential to ensure the safety and well-being of patients, staff, and visitors during a crisis or disaster. These plans include protocols for responding to various emergencies such as natural disasters and fires.
Some key components of an emergency plan in hospitals and healthcare centers may include:
- Roles and responsibilities of emergency response teams
- Communication protocols
- Evacuation procedures
- Shelter-in-place protocols
- Patient tracking and reunification procedures
- Staff training and drills
- Continuity of operations plans
Healthcare emergency management refers to the development and implementation of plans and procedures when a hospital or healthcare organization is affected by a significant emergency or disaster.
The top tips for healthcare emergency management include:
- Ensuring emergency supplies are available
- Conducting practice drills in advance
- Understanding how to shut off gas, water, electricity, etc., during a disaster
- Having evacuation procedures in place.
The five categories of emergency preparedness and response are:
- Prevention
- Protection
- Mitigation
- Response
- Recovery
Hospitals and healthcare organizations should be ready to handle the following emergencies:
- Chemical spills emergencies
- Biological and chemical agents
- Natural disasters
- Severe weather events
- Radiation emergencies
- Fire
- Terrorism
- Inside and outside disasters with mass casualties
- Civil unrest
- Power outages
- Disease outbreaks, such as influenza, Ebola, COVID-19, SARS
- Heat waves
These emergencies can directly impact the hospital and healthcare facilities and/or occur in the community, thereby straining the hospital's resources. Being prepared for both scenarios is crucial.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends including the following in emergency preparedness checklists in healthcare organizations:
- Appointing people to be in charge of incident command, including planning, logistics, operations, finance, and administration.
- Having systems in place to ensure safety and security measures are implemented during an emergency.
- Ensuring you have communication systems, processes, and personnel ready to go.
- Maintaining continuity of services despite the emergency incident.
- Having excellent mass casualty triage protocols in place to meet the demands of the disaster.
- Being prepared for surge capacity.
- Managing supply chains and logistics to ensure the ongoing availability of crucial supplies.
- Ensuring you have adequate staff capacity.
- Post-disaster recovery plans to get things back to normal quickly after the disaster.
While there isn't a one-size-fits-all plan for all hospitals and healthcare facilities to implement emergency protocols successfully, some best practices will suit most institutions and should be included in response plans, such as communication, training, drills, scenario rehearsals, and evaluations.
For more information on emergency plans in hospitals and health care centers, you can refer to the following resources:
WHO guidance on preparing for national response to health emergencies and disasters: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240037182
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Hospital Preparedness Program: https://www.cdc.gov/orr/readiness/sixdomains.htm
American Hospital Association (AHA) - Emergency Preparedness: https://www.aha.org/emergency-preparedness
The Joint Commission - Emergency Management: https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/patient-safety-topics/emergency-management/
It is important for staff and visitors to familiarize themselves with these codes and the corresponding actions to take in each situation