Hospital Disaster Planning - Fire Chief Point of View - Research Paper Example

Hospital Disaster Planning al Affiliation) Hospital Disaster Planning Fire Chief Point of View Calamities and disasterare some of the great challenges any given organization can ever face. Therefore it is advisable to have a plan on how to mitigate such chaos when they occur. Fire, in most cases has been caused by electrical fault and sometimes spill of corrosive medicine and chemicals which when they come into contact with combustible materials, setting them on fire. A larger portion of patients in hospital who may not have the ability to run or help themselves, it is necessary to practice fire disaster management that will ensure survival and reoccupation of most, if not all, patients. Finally the purpose of a plan is to enable an organization reduce expenses which may occur at a future time. To begin with, every plan and project has to have goals and objectives to be met and therefore ample time ought to be invested so that all relevant information is table. In case of fire, some on the things to consider are how the fire outbreak can occur. In some instance, fire occurs outside the premises while in few instances inside the building. The major question then is how one will handle such a case in either case. There is therefore a need to have a plan. The initial step in designing a good plan for fire emergency is to contact personnel who have dealt with such cases, for they have a wide knowledge of past experience in disaster management and therefore they would be fundamental assets for a viable emergency management fire plan (Hanna, 2008). A good plan should define basin emergency terminologies and diagrammatically show any symbol associated with fire emergency and a clear definition of the symbol and its use and purpose. This is because the team that comes up with the plan may not be the same team that will put the plan into operation. The sequential steps and measures to pursue, incase of fire breakout, should be sequential enough and easy to implement. Furthermore, a good plan should have a list of appendix to give easy reference of information within the plan. In addition, a good plan should also be able to achieve its objectives perfectly well and also it should be subject to amendment. Assuming that fire outbreak from outside, some of the objectives many include one, to ensure that the larger mass of patients who possible could be outside are well controlled in order to avoid any casualty. Secondly, in case of fatalities, first aid ought to be administered instantaneously to avoid further complication. In addition to that, the medial care should come up with ways of ensuring that the available facilities for instance medicine and space can accommodate as many patients as possible. This can be done by borrowing beds from other health cares and other relevant equipments (Hogan, 2007). On the other hand, in case of a fire outbreak within the medical care, techniques and ways of warding off damage to the equipment of the medical care should be taken into consideration. Workforce is also mandated to know their firm duties that are they should work hand in hand to support the fire team and those attending to patients should do that. In other words, the internal environment ought to be kept composed as in all spheres. In the instance where the medical center lacks the necessary equipments to handle the fire disaster and therefore, external assistance should also be sought. Another fundamental component to consider, when coming up with a plan, in the availability of basic requirements. The requirements that should be employed must focus on one, casualties that may arise and secondly the area under damage. This is to say that every medical care must have adequate rescuers that can effectively be used to mitigate and take care of the above mentioned cases. The following are some of the principles that can be used to choose the best equipments and tool to use. One, check on the organization structure itself and analyze the possibility of fire occuring. After that, draft the plan keep in mind that the plan ought to be as simple as possible but detailed as possible and finally during the emergency period resources should not be wasted. Only use the available tools to take care of most important tasks while those of little importance can be handled at a later date (Gilbert, 2004). Leadership is also very important, not only in cases of fire but also in every management of a given organization. One must understand that crisis come with a certain level of confusion and as a result there must be people who can be counted upon to provide directions and guidelines. The management should therefore be effective and efficient in making viable decisions. Owing to this, in time of crisis, a manageable team should be mobilized within the shortest time possible. This team should pool together their competencies and support the executives in decision making process. It should be noted that, the purpose of coming up with the team is not to replace the existing management, but for the purpose of pulling up ideas to handle the crisis before it magnifies. Finally, the availability of this manageable team, to focus on handing the fire crisis, will present other staff with the opportunity of ensuring that the day to day routines of the medical care are moving on smoothly without interruption (Savage, 2009). Knowledge and understanding of how to handle disasters in very important. As a result, the management of hospitals should ensure that all their staff understands how to deal with fire cases. This can be done through training of firefighting methods and tricks. Also, the management should ensure that there is regular inspection of the premise for any vulnerability and maintain them in advance. Staff who work in laboratories where there they use flames for, whichever purpose, should be given course of action on appropriate handling of the open flame and any other component that can cause fire, for instance heaters among others. Management should make it aware to its staff the location of all the fire sprinkler system and any other system for fighting fire stating with the fire extinguisher equipments (Masellis, 2003). Also, staff should know where emergency exits doors.. Moreover, relevant symbols should be expressed in diagrams that are easy to interprete at a glance. They may include symbols showing a person running to an exit among others. Another important factor to consider, in case of such an emergency, is creating an awareness of the same. This can be effectively being done using a quick and reliable alarm system. For this to work effectively, the person or department to set the alarm should be known at hand, this is to avoid wastage of time will such an emergency arise. In addition to that, the alarm should not only be activated after the incident of fire explosion, but it should be triggered the instant there is suspicion of fire break out. One fundamental principle to keep in mind is delayed mobilization and physiological preparation of people is very poisonous. Moreover, it is also good to define the meeting point of the mobilized people and what they should do once they are there. These points should also be far away from fire hazards and should also act as a point where accounting, for evacuated people, is done. Finally, is such a situation, communication networks should be free from barriers since they will be of much significance in relaying information. In addition to offering a meeting point and ensuring that people have a safe place, the management should ensure that if follows up to search and rescue any person who might have not found their way into the assembly point. In the plan, such operations should be clearly stated, beginning with who should carry out the rescue mission and which approach to make use of. This is because such a maneuver demands for certified and specially trained people. In addition to that, it is at this point where first aid should be administered, that is if there are them who have been affected in any way (Mike & Hillary, 2010). Another important method of preparing to fire breakout is drilling plan. This is tests done on a building to check on its ability and readiness to withstand fire. The test is categorized into two, planned and unplanned drills. These tests are carried with the objective of one, rescuing person and preventing them from being wounded and secondly, scaling down the number of people who loose their life in such situations. Planned and unplanned drills test targets on inspection and test for the true ability of an organization to withstand fire outbreaks. Moreover, planning should also look on the possibility of failure of equipments which are very basic in while handling fire outbreak. For instance, failure of exit doors and fire extinguishers to work, may bring frustration and more confusion. Therefore, the plan should include substitute and counter-measures to allow smooth operations. Some of the available options are to have a plan of regularly checking these equipments or having them replaced after a certain time interval. In case of any external assistance from fire fighting organizations, management should collaborate with them well so that the fire fighters may have easy time in their operation. Also, other medical care that are available to offer medical services to casualties ought to be well coordinated to ensure that they do not create commotion. Also a record of all casualties who are taken to other medical care out to be recorder as this will enable easy follow up by either the hospital itself or family members. Some situations call to for tough decisions to make thought fruitful decisions. Some times fire breakout may be too large. At this point, the plan should be adjustable in a way to allow patients who have not fully recovered, but they are well off, be released. The plan may as well permit those who are still under intensive medication to be transferred to other hospitals. Secondly, during fire breakout, medical cares should not allow admissions of any other patients. The medical care may also embark on releasing operations rooms while preparing rooms to reserve them who will be evacuating the building (Mercy & Mercelinah. 2007). The plan should also take account of a reinstatement system. In some occasions, destruction to property, of the medical center, may incapacitate the future operations of the center leading to closure of the business. Due to this it is good to have a plan on how to ensure that patients would not be disadvantaged by the occurrence of such a phenomenon. The plan should therefore enlist the viable contractors who can offer equipments and other important services. In conclusion, preparation is the basic ingredient to success on any plan pertaining to disaster management. The potential threats have to be critically analyzed necessary precautions put in place to handle the disaster. The geographical location should also analyze to identify vulnerable points and make amendment on them. It is extremely tough to deal with a major catastrophe and calamity by merely focusing on the existing assets and not having an organized plan at hand. It is also advisable not to come up a plan that focus on occurrence of complicated and extraordinary phenomenon, which might not occur, and which may lead one to focus on high-tech facilities. Planers are advice to include ways in which to impart knowledge and understanding to their staff so that they can assist themselves were such an incident to occur. Finally, intelligence is also key component for mastering and controlling major accidents and disasters. References Hanna, J. (2008). Disaster planning for health care facilities. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Hospital Association. Hogan, D. (2007). Disaster medicine (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Gilbert K. (2004). Hospital planning for national disaster Washington: Pergamon Press. Savage, P. (2009). Disasters: Hospital planning : A manual for doctors, nurses, and administrators. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Masellis, M. (2003). The Management of Mass Burn Casualities and Fire Disasters Proceedings of the First International Conference on Burns and Fire Disasters. Dordrecht: Springer. Mike, R., & Hillary, E. (2010). International Disaster Nursing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mercy, J., & Mercelinah, B. (2007). Egress design solutions: A guide to evacuation and crowd management planning. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & So Read More