Is your Hospital Ready for a Disaster?

According to a May 5 report from Reuters news service, a one-day snapshot of emergency room conditions at 34 U.S. hospitals shows they are all overwhelmed and none is prepared to handle a big event like a disaster or attack. The snapshot, which included seven major cities---New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Houston, Denver and Minneapolis---was performed in all 34 emergency rooms on Tuesday, March 25 at 4:30 pm local time. Using the information from this report, various news agencies then questioned if the United States was capable of responding to a terror attack similar to the train bombing in Madrid.

What I found most interesting was that just one month later, and before the May 5 report, at least one community hospital showed it was capable of handling such a sudden influx of disaster victims coming in at 4:30 pm. Of course I am talking about Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk, Va. As I reported on our website in "Dealing with the Aftermath," a tornado, which just missed the hospital, sent 70 patients to the hospital's ER.

Thanks to disaster preparedness, the hospital was able to provide excellent care to the victims.

When I was working as a NM technologist at a small community hospital, we had a situation where there was a sudden influx of patients to the ER because of a chemical release at a nearby plant. Although we handled the patients well, there was some confusion at first because we had never practiced our emergency preparations.

Do you think your hospital is ready for a disaster? Could it handle a sudden influx of 70 patients as well as the staff of Sentara Obici? Do you know where to look to find your hospital's written procedures for emergencies? Have you had any practice runs?

If you have any suggestions for improving hospital readiness for emergencies, we would love to hear from you.