Tornado and Disaster Preparation for Hospitals - Essay Example

"Tornado and Disaster Preparation for Hospitals" is a perfect example of a paper on the health system.
Hospitals serve a major role during tornados; while hospitals are a safe place for the public to shield from tornado effects, they are also the place where injured victims during a tornado can be treated.

 The tornado that affected the St. John’s hospital in Joplin, Missouri in May 2011 caused 5 deaths. These deaths were not caused by flying debris or building collapse, rather they were caused by loss of electricity, which caused the patients who were on respirators to suffocate to death. The hospital’s backup generator was sucked out of the building by the tornado’s 200mph winds. It is therefore clear that although most hospitals will have emergency generators, the placement of the generator is crucial. If the generators are placed in the basements, the floods might affect their performance  (Porth, 2012).

 In 2007, a Tornado affected Phoebe Sumpter Regional hospital in Americus, Ga., although the hospital was completely destroyed, their generator located in the bottom of the building was operational the entire time and all patients were safely evacuated (Sulzberger, 2013 ). In tornado preparedness, power from backup generators should not be in areas where they do not increase the risk of electrocution and explosion. While tornado preparedness involves preparing the staff, for an influx of tornado victims, a tornado evacuation plan for patients when the hospital itself is affected is crucial. The patients can be evacuated to alternative safer medical sites. It is unlikely that an emergency operation plan will ever provide exact response reactions, but it does provide the staff with the critical thinking skills needed to anticipate and respond to a disaster.

Elements of tornado preparations for hospitals include; Effective communication, to coordinate the employees, the media, and the public; Evacuation, the hospital must test all evacuation plans to identify and correct weaknesses; Medical surge, hospital must prepare procedures for patient care in convectional, contingency and crisis settings including solutions to limitation of staff, supply and space; Planning, creating emergency plans provide staff with critical thinking skills needed to manage disaster response; Response and assets; hospitals should ask an individual with supply management during a disaster; Safety and security; hospital should be aware of imposters and opportunists who try to take advantage of crisis situations; Staffing, hospital should decide how to care for staff during disaster response and recovery; Volunteers, hospitals incorporate plans to accept credential, and use volunteers who do not have basic lodging and food accommodations; Utilities, hospitals should not depend on utilities and should consider redundant systems and partnerships for water and power sources (Hogan, 2007).

Tornado watches are equipment that is used to read alerts for approaching storms and the possibility of tornadoes in an area. Tornado warnings are immediate warnings about a sited tornado. When tornado warnings are issued, individuals are usually advised to move to a pre-designated place of safety. This should be away from windows, lobbies, walkways, and other large glassed-in areas. Individuals can also crouch in the interior of a wall while covering their heads with their hands. Hospital’s tornado evacuation plans include; identifying alternative sites to provide medical surge care, this alternative site should have access to electronic medical records; having a comprehensive medical evacuation plan that includes transportation; having alternative larger health system to accept patients during a surge event.                                       Read More