Have you "CORED" lately? A comprehensive operating room evacuation drill.

Introduction: Crises in the operating room (OR) are uncommon events that require an expeditious response from all providers to minimize morbidity and mortality to both patients and staff. Evacuation during a surgical procedure presents a unique challenge. There is a paucity of data on the ideal response, ideal times, and training needs for hospital staff.

A comparison of command center activations versus disaster drills at three institutions from 2013 to 2015.

Objective: Disaster exercises often simulate rare, worst-case scenario events that range from mass casualty incidents to severe weather events. In actuality, situations such as information system downtimes and physical plant failures may affect hospital continuity of operations far more significantly. The objective of this study is to evaluate disaster drills at two academic and one community hospital to compare the frequency of planned drills versus real-world events that led to emergency management command center activation.

Health care system hazard vulnerability analysis: an assessment of all public hospitals in Abu Dhabi.

Hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) is used to risk-stratify potential threats, measure the probability of those threats, and guide disaster preparedness. The primary objective of this project was to analyse the level of disaster preparedness in public hospitals in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, utilising the HVA tool in collaboration with the Disaster Medicine Section at Harvard Medical School. The secondary objective was to review each facility's disaster plan and make recommendations based on the HVA findings.

Hospital-based emergency preparedness: evacuation of the neonatal intensive care unit-the smallest and most vulnerable population.

Objective: The objective of this study was to report an experience with a full-scale neonatal intensive care unit evacuation exercise.

Methods: This was a retrospective review of lessons learned from a full-scale evacuation exercise following a simulated catastrophe. Thirty-four realistically simulated neonatal intensive care unit infants (including 12 infants who required respiratory support and 3 with very complex medical issues) were horizontally evacuated emergently to limit immediate danger, followed by a vertical evacuation down several flights of stairs to a temporary holding area.