Are You Prepared?
Are You Prepared for a Natural Disaster?
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Imagine you work at a 320-bed, seven-story hospital. Now imagine that it takes a direct hit by a tornado on a late Sunday afternoon causing extensive building damage, blowing out the windows, and taking off the roof. I wish this was just a drill, but Sunday night it was a reality in Joplin, Missouri, just 70 miles west of us. St. John’s Regional Medical Center was fully evacuated after hospital personnel followed the facility’s emergency plan of moving patients into the corridors five minutes prior to the EF5 tornado hitting. Mark Rohr, Joplin’s city manager, says the confirmed death toll from the tornado has risen to 124 and is expected to go higher. It is unclear at this time if any of those are associated with the hospital.
So the question I have for you today is this, do you have a disaster plan? You cannot assume the hospital will be there ready to help. I spoke with Debbie Arnold, Clinic Administrator of Headache Care Center, to see what plan(s) they have in place. She spoke of an informal agreement she made with another medical office in the area that if one of them loses their building, “we will share our practice space with the other one so that we can continue caring for our patients.” She went on to explain other points that every office should consider as a part of their disaster plan, such as their employees. What happens to them? Can the company continue paying their employees if the physical building is destroyed and cannot continue business as usual? How do you contact your employees if they are at home when a disaster strikes? What if your employees are personally affected by the disaster? What is the long-term situation with your employees, especially if you are in a situation like St. John’s.
Another point she brought up was getting in contact with your local emergency planning team; register with them so they know how many employees you have and what type of chemicals you have on site. The local emergency planning team may also add you to their list to aid them in time of emergency.
And most importantly, your patients and their well-being and care: if you have patients on site, how are you going to transport them during an emergency to another location. How do you manage your practice if you lose your patient records? What medications are they on and what are your patients’ initial histories? How are you going to contact them to let them know your situation if you are in another office, or how can they contact you? “You must have an Emergency Action Plan,” Ms. Arnold stated, “not only is it OSHA required, but your patients and employees deserve it.”
Already this year the United States has declared 36 disasters in 34 states; in 2010, there were 81 disaster declarations, and 59 in 2009. We have experienced flooding, landslides, mudslides, severe winter storms/snowstorms, extreme cold temperatures, severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds, Tsunami waves, debris/mud flows, and wildfires. Other considerations are earthquakes, hurricanes, bomb threats, violence, chemical disasters/spills, evacuation plans, and major power losses.
Disasters seem more like common day occurrences instead of the rare events they used to be. We can no longer afford the attitude of “Oh, that won’t happen to us,” or “We can get to that later,” thinking we can address the issues of emergency preparedness for our office another day. Today is the day. Are you prepared? Share here with your peers what you have done, or are doing, to prepare. We know at the federal level there are a few shortcomings, so we may have to rely on our own abilities and those of our neighbors. And yours are?
Also be sure to read our article on Helping Patients Cope Following a Natural Disaster. A great tool to go along with this article.
Memoirs of one St. John’s ER doctor.
Updated May 27, 2011
Published on May 24, 2011
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