Hospital Planning for Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents

Abstract

As terrorists attacks increase in frequency, hospital disaster plans need to be scrutinized to ensure that they take into account issues unique to weapons of mass destruction. This paper reports a review of the literature addressing hospital experiences with such incidents and the planning lessons thus learned. Construction of hospital disaster plans is examined as an ongoing process guided by the disaster planning committee. Hospitals are conceived as one of the components of a larger community disaster planning efforts, with specific attention devoted to defining important linkages among response organizations. This includes the public health authorities, political authorities, prehospital care agencies, and emergency management agencies. A review is completed of six special elements of weapons of mass destruction incidents that should be addressed in hospital disaster plans: incident command, hospital security, patient surge, decontamination, mental health consequences, and communications. The paper closes with a discussion of the importance of training and exercises in maintaining and improving the disaster plan.KEY WORDS: Hospital disaster plans, mass casualties, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction � 116

Assessing and Managing Environmental Risk: Connecting Local Government Management with Emergency Management

“…Exercises are considered a form of training in the sense that individuals are rehearsing response measures. Ultimately, however, exercises provide a forum in which to test the effectiveness of both the training program and the plan, as well as the ability of personnel to execute the plan (Somers and Perry 2008). The creation of meaningful disaster exercises demands that the event test personnel, operating procedures, and equipment.…”