By Hadley Gavin
Healthcare facilities and hospitals have a primary mandate of addressing healthcare emergencies and disasters by setting appropriate emergency responses right in advance. Whenever disasters strike, healthcare organizations and facilities are always on the receiving end. Without proper disaster preparedness strategies, many healthcare facilities can end up in a complete functional failure.
Unpreparedness can paralyze the healthcare system
The magnitude of disasters can push healthcare organizations to request for emergency support services from external forces, which may not be available sometimes. This sudden stop in healthcare organizations can subject patients or injured people to immense risks. Some risks can lead to even adverse situations.
Unpreparedness can also affect the immediate community, the healthcare staff, and stakeholders. In this regard, an entire healthcare system and healthcare facilities must strive to maintain a high level of preparedness ahead of unforeseen healthcare related emergencies to avoid a crisis.
Healthcare organizations must understand their roles
Healthcare organizations need to place emergency response at the top of their priority list. Disasters happen almost every day, and these emergency incidences are on the rise. Hospitals and healthcare facilities must be prepared to address and manage disasters, such as heavy storms, drought, earthquake, wildfire, floods, and industrial accidents, including mass shootings or terrorism. They must be ready to work collaboratively to provide necessary healthcare services to the affected populations. They need to work with both internal and external teams to help make healthcare emergency plans successful.
Healthcare facilities must save lives
Healthcare organizations must focus on saving lives that is the prime goal of a healthcare emergency response. They must do all it takes to control risks, prevent vulnerability, and foster a positive health outcome. Even if healthcare facilities fail to manage risks fully, they can set measures that guarantee that the consequences of the disaster are not adverse. This entails preparing the health facilities well, including healthcare teams, to provide proper treatment and care without delay. The objective of healthcare emergency preparedness is saving lives and lowering the long-drawn health consequences of tragedies.
Proper storage of drugs, water, vaccines, plasma, and other sensitive materials are significant ways of saving lives and preventing the consequences of disasters. Poor storage of these sensitive materials can lead to even more disasters to the already-affected population. The healthcare facilities and agencies must adhere to the storage standards of medicine and vaccines, which require them to have “pharmacy-grade” refrigerators and freezers that are purposely engineered to sustain the necessary temperatures all through the emergency response period. Companies such as BioFridge manufacture portable medical refrigerator freezers allowing for the safe transportation and handling of sensitive materials during emergency disasters.
In most cases, disaster, such as hurricanes or earthquakes and epidemics can cause infectious diseases, which healthcare teams must be well prepared to address. The mortality rate in an emergency setting is pegged on the gravity of the disaster, and most of all, the health emergency response to provide treatment to the sick and the injured.
Go for the best, but be ready for adversity…
In the end, an entire region or community will only be safe if the healthcare system is adequately prepared. Furthermore, an emergency response team will only be capable if the population is resilient. It is, therefore, recommended that healthcare organizations and agencies should invest a lot more in programs that are effective in providing disaster solutions. Equally, proper preparedness is dependent on the way healthcare organizations continue to test, experiment, and approve innovative healthcare emergency control modalities.
