Evacuation plans/emergency plans

[LilPeanut, MSN, RN, NP]

Just curious, in light of the NOLA nurses/doc who recently were cleared, what your hospital evac plans are, specifically for your unit.

When I found out about ours (I work in a NICU) I was surprised and sad. We have vests to put the babies in that we can, but all our kids on vents and pressor support, we do not plan on evac'ing them. It's just not feasible if there is fire/fire risk, trying to transport them with O2/monitors etc. It makes me really pray there's never a fire at the hospital.

Now, in a situation like with Katrina, that's a little different, but still, how could you handle a long term power outage? again, our unit would be decimated most likely

Terrible to think about. But in some ways, we should, so we can be mentally prepared.

[TazziRN, RN]

First rule of survival/triage: bypass the ones you can't save and save the ones you can.

[RNperdiem, RN]

There is a reason hospitals have the most stringent fire codes. There are firewalls, fire doors, and extensive sprinkler systems. The idea is that you would evacuate within the building to a safer location. The fire doors would buy you hours of protection.

Your little NICU patients hopefully would have enough transport vents and transport monitors to go around. There was a gas leak at the L&D unit a couple of days before I gave birth. This large unit packed up everyone and left in quick order. The delivering moms were wheeled to OR's and all empty beds in the hospital were set aside for laboring moms. They must have had a good plan.

Having to actually leave the hospital requires outside help.

[woody62, RN]

I lived in Charlotte County, Florida when Hurricane Charlie hit. The day before it hit, one of our three hospitals evacuated all of its patients, either home or two facilities one county over. The other two discharged as many patients as they could. Both suffered lose of their roofs and had to close to admissions. Both were able to keep their ERs open. Other counties sent us rescue squads, nurses, physicians, parmedics. We were able to manage until our hospitals could re-open. As far as I know, none have changed their emergency plans.

Woody

[woody62, RN]

I might add, Charlie was a small, focused hurricane, ven though it was a Cat four. The counties on either side of ours were not damaged. Katrina was spread out over a wider area. And much of the damage the New Orleans suffered was from the failure of the locks and flooding, after Katrina passed.

Woody