Disaster preparedness

Specialties Emergency

Published

I've worked ER for the last 5 years at a level II trauma center & a small ER. We've had 1 conference on disaster preparedness, fatality mng., active shooter, etc. We've had 1 "disaster" drill. I've been on scence immediately after a F5 destroyed a town, where I had to begin triage. I feel where I work hasn't focused enough on diaster planning. I have TNCC which helps. Wondering how much practice other hospitals do, extra training available & experiences that might help.

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I am a Emergency Preparedness Coordinator at a hospital in TN. The hardest thing for us is to get administrative buy in to what we would like to do. My facility will do 1 large scale community mass casualty drill(multiple agencys) , 1 decon drill and two active shooters this yr. I do various educational oppertunities with staff on START triage,evacuation,ect... I think alot of hospitals function in a silo.I make it a point to train and interact with all our partners in the communiy ie;fire,ems,police. I have a really supportive administration ...

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Agree with the points made above.

The disaster/mass casualty mentality is tough for administrators to wrap theirs heads around. And quite frankly ... this cannot just be an ED thing. All of your ED staff could train & prepare, but unless the hospital as a whole (that means from the top) is committed to readiness ... all the ER training in the world won't get you very far, should such an incident occur.

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