How do hospitals prepare for the unthinkable?

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Found at healthleaders.com:

Hospitals begin to address shortcomings

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/246/metro/Hospitals_begin_to_address_shortcomings+.shtml

How do hospitals prepare for the unthinkable? And at a time when patients are being thrown off Medicaid rolls and health insurance premiums are rising, how is the need to prepare for disaster weighed against the imperative to prevent and treat the diseases more likely to kill most of us?

Boston Globe, Sept. 3, 2002

Will really need to reflect on this article as I'm chair of safety committee in homecare agency...disaster policy NOT inplace per HIPAA review. Karen

[sjoe]

It's really not so complicated.

Triage them--taking only the patients with cash up front first, then those with FULL healthcare coverage.

The 90% of the folks who are left can just fend for themselves--they only require a very large waiting room in which to sit.

This is the direction of US healthcare anyway, the "unthinkable" just speeds the process up a bit.

IMHO.