|
Once a disaster has hit, so has complete chaos. Sirens are blaring, lights are flashing and first responders are on the scene frantically attending to victims. In midst of this commotion, hospitals can log onto a Web-based system (SurgeNet) that allows them to identify available beds for the victims. Utilizing this bed-tracking system, emergency medical services (EMS) can decide where to send patients based on their search results, making the delivery process faster and easier without potentially overcrowding one hospital. SurgeNet also identifies bed type availability based on the National Disaster Medical System. It shows what types of beds are available, such as burn, psychiatric or intensive care beds, as well as emergency room and operating room beds. While hospitals and others are waiting for incoming victims to arrive, they will be able to use a new Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) page to prepare for the needs of the patients by seeing their severity level. The MCI page will be added to the bed-tracking Web site with a color-coded system (START Triage) to sort and classify patients by the type and severity of their condition. Using this new resource, hospitals will know in advance the number and type of patients to expect, able to prepare for two trauma victims (red) and five victims with minor injuries (green) before they arrive. An onsite EMS worker could also report 10 deaths (black) at the scene of a disaster on the MCI page to alert funeral directors to prepare for a large number of incoming victims. As medical personnel are tending to patients, distressed family members and friends wait worrying about the location and status of loved ones. As a way to provide information about victims to their families, a patient-tracking system is under development. This technology is vital during emergency situations or hospital evacuations when hospitals and other responding partners need to keep track of hundreds or thousands of patients. Hospitals and others can enter a person’s name and pre-determined descriptors to determine the location where he or she has been transferred. Medical and responding personnel can add blog-like entries through the tracking system to communicate the status of the incident to other personnel. Even though most people view hospitals as a safe haven, they too can be hit by a disaster. Therefore, hospitals need to be prepared to care for a large number of casualties or to evacuate patients from the building. Unlike evacuating a school building or city building, much more care is needed when evacuating a hospital. Patients are critically ill and often hooked up to life-saving equipment that prevents them from self-evacuating and makes transfer difficult. To assist hospitals in their preparation, OHA is creating a decision tool to help hospitals know when to evacuate. Hospitals also will receive an evacuation plan template to add to their Emergency Operations Plans. The decision tool and evacuation plans will provide specific instructions for deciding if a partial or total evacuation is necessary, number and type of transport vehicles needed, as well as where patients can be transferred through the use of SurgeNet. To prepare for situations requiring decontamination, Ohio will be the first state to create a decontamination assessment process, giving hospitals concrete steps for evaluating whether they have the correct decontamination equipment and whether their staff know the proper procedures for a decontamination situation. Although
Ohio may not have the most experience dealing with catastrophic events,
the state is prepared for the worst with the implementation of these
communication devices and templates (SurgeNet, Patient Tracking, etc.).
These projects are made possible by federal grants, awarded by the
Office of
the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and distributed
through the Ohio Department of Health.
For more information on
emergency preparedness in Ohio visit
www.prepareohio.com. |
