A meta-analysis of hospital evacuations: overcoming barriers to effective planning.

A hospital evacuation is a significant disaster scenario facing today's Hospital Emergency Coordinators (HECs) and Risk Managers. In this work we explore the numerous barriers that prevent HECs from being able to effectively plan for and execute hospital evacuations based on a review of the pertinent literature of the last 30 years. We discuss the finding that the reasons for the success or failure generally fall into 1 or more of 8 broad categories: Predisaster Assessment, Logistics, Communications, Community Relationships, Manual Records and Tracking, Resource Management, Special Patient Populations, and Postevacuation Return.

Optimization-based decision support to assist in logistics planning for hospital evacuations.

The evacuation of the hospital is a very complex process and evacuation planning is an important part of a hospital's emergency management plan. There are numerous factors that affect the evacuation plan including the nature of threat, availability of resources and staff the characteristics of the evacuee population, and risk to patients and staff. The safety and health of patients is of fundamental importance, but safely moving patients to alternative care facilities while under threat is a very challenging task.

Preparing for the unexpected: violence in the home care environment, one agency's story.

Home care and hospice agencies, bound by regulations, prepare for emergencies and disasters by creating policies and protocols for management of emergency situations, perhaps conducting table top or other types of drills, and discussing hazards likely to impact home care. Is this preparation merely an exercise to meet a requirement, or is it life-saving preparation? For one home care agency, the emergency exercise saved the day as the scenario enacted in the drill was actually lived out a few weeks after the exercise-a scenario the agency leaders hoped they would never face. This account explores how the agency prepared to meet the emergent situation and details lessons learned in the aftermath.