Survey: Do you feel your hospital is prepared to handle a major disaster?

I still disagree because a patient presenting to the ER with inhalation anthrax would not be carrying a concentrated amount of spores on his person. Also the spores need a way to be inhaled, such as with the postal workers. Are you aware that the post office cleans the mail sorting machines daily with a powerful air blower to blow out paper particles from the machines? It is similar to a leaf blower and this is what caused the spores to become concentrated as well as airborne with enough force to be inhaled at the needed numbers to cause disease. This is why the CDC at first didn't realize the danger; they were unaware of the cleaning procedures. This would not be the case with a patient, even if several thousand spores were clinging to their person-highly unlikely. Also once inside the body the spores germinate and are no longer infective as active bacteria, as anthax is spread thru spores, not the bacteria. So standard precautions are sufficient, and funeral home workers should not have a problem. As you stated, it is the spraying of the spores that causes infection. Merely falling off the clothes of the patient would not cause inhalation anthrax (possibly cutaneous though)-and certainly by the time it was recognized that the patient indeed has inhalation anthrax, any possible exposure would already have occurred and the patient would have been disrobed. So unless all ER personnel decide to stay at home indefinitely, there would be no reason to run once a case was diagnosed. And since it mimics the flu until xrays and lymph node exams are made, the ER people would be running ewith every fever, chills and body aches patient they see. Now if you were to talk about chemical warfare that is a totally different scenario and proper decon is vital to the survival of the patient as well as the safety of the healthcare workers.

My hospital in theUK has had all kinds of briefings against the threat of chemical warfare and I think we are all pretty well clued up as to what actions would take place in that eventuality. What really scares me is what would happen if we were subject to a terrorist strike. The building is 19 floors high, we already know the fire service can only reach the 6th floor by ladder so how the hell do all the rest get out in a hurry?. We have a system for evacuating bed bound paitients in the event of a fire, but that only allows for 1 or 2 wards to be cleared at any one time. Srikes me that if we needed to evacuate the entire building we would be pretty well stuffed!. Even more bizarre, ICU is on the top floor. All I can say is god help us all!!

I agree with your assessment of your hospital's ability to meet major emergency needs. The centralised system, in the UK,is better adapted to
meet the needs of a major disaster because all the Hospitals in work in tandem. Here, in the Canada and the US, each hospital has it's own little Niche but lack overall preparedness.
Good work, Keep it up. Is it still raining?

We just had one of the warmest octobers on record, all the trees still have their leaves, which is pretty unusual for this time of year. On the disaster front, we curently have rumours flying around the place that we could all be queing up for anthrax jabs to go with the flu jabs they try and persuade the staff to have every year. So far as I know, we have no confirmed anthrax outbreaks in the UK so far. Ive been doing some reading up though, all the British nursing journals have got articles in about dealing with cases of anthrax. Best to be knowledgable and prepared I say.
All the best