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Preparing your hospital for an unexpected disaster

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, June 30, 2006

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What will your hospital do if there's a community disaster? Although the JCAHO's new emergency management tracers-during which surveyors review disaster plans-apply to hospitals with 200 or more beds, the JCAHO has increased its focus on disaster planning in the wake of such highly publicized events as Hurricane Katrina. So although your hospital may be small, or in an area that isn't prone to a disaster such as Katrina, it won't matter when surveyors show up, the JCAHO says.

If you've already conducted one drill this year, plan your next based on the standards changes. Here are some tips:

• Make sure that your hazard vulnerability analysis is current and realistic. Every organization has vulnerabilities, so be honest in your assessment.
• Drill the areas for which you're least prepared; this is where you can get the biggest bang for performance improvement.
• Do mini exercises more often (e.g., for power loss in the operating room during open-heart surgery).

To get more tips that can help your hospital prepare for disasters, go to Brieifings on JCAHO (BOJ). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire July issue of BOJ. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of BOJ have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their July issue.

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