Tornado Evacutation

drgnflydggr · May 12, 2010

For a tornado watch, we close all blinds. For a warning, we move the patients out into the hall and close the doors to their rooms.

DayDreamin ER CRNP · May 13, 2010

Horizontal evacuation then vertical but that rarely could happen. You can evacuate that many people vertically. I live in Tornado Alley and if there is a grey warning, meaning a tornado has been spotted w/in 5-7 miles or so we are move patients into the halls, close the blinds and doors. If we have a black warning and a tornado has been spotted in our immediate "medical district" we evacuate into the halls and the top 2 floors of patients that can walk or are in wheel chairs can possibly vertically evacuated to the basement.

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midinphx, BSN · May 13, 2010

I cannot imagine doing this in an ICU setting. How do you manage? If I had 2 vented patients....

Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · May 13, 2010

Pardon my ignorance as I don't live where there are tornados.

Why do you close the blinds? Is it to prevent glass from broken windows? Or is it to keep pts from seeing the tornado coming?

And just how big is your basement? We are a small hospital - only 200 beds and while we don't have a "basement" we do have a ground floor, but there is no way we could get 200 beds in there. Or are your hospitals designed to accomadate this?

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · May 13, 2010

When I worked in a hospital in suburban Oklahoma City, when there was a tornado warning in the area we moved all patients from their rooms into the unit dining area (which did not have an exterior wall or windows). All visitors were asked to stay on the unit until all clear was called.

DayDreamin ER CRNP · May 13, 2010

Pardon my ignorance as I don't live where there are tornados.
Why do you close the blinds? Is it to prevent glass from broken windows? Or is it to keep pts from seeing the tornado coming?
And just how big is your basement? We are a small hospital - only 200 beds and while we don't have a "basement" we do have a ground floor, but there is no way we could get 200 beds in there. Or are your hospitals designed to accomadate this?

Yes! We pull the blinds so the patients can't see all the wind and debris that is likely to be flying around and it is to prevent glass from blowing in too much in the event the windows do shatter.

Our basement is pretty big. Our hospital takes up a small city block but I could not even begin to tell you how many square feet that might be. Of course, not all patients would go there because a tornado come and goes very quickly and we would not have enough time to evacuate.

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Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · May 13, 2010

Yes! We pull the blinds so the patients can't see all the wind and debris that is likely to be flying around and it is to prevent glass from blowing in too much in the event the windows do shatter.
Our basement is pretty big. Our hospital takes up a small city block but I could not even begin to tell you how many square feet that might be. Of course, not all patients would go there because a tornado come and goes very quickly and we would not have enough time to evacuate.

Thanks for the answer! Very interesting. It must be very scary to go to work knowing that the tornados are out there and may be headed your way!

I'm glad all I have to worry about is snow storms and ice storms that may cause me to be either a)trapped at work becaue no one can make it in, or b) called into work on my day off because I live close and no one can make it in!

DayDreamin ER CRNP · May 13, 2010

Thanks for the answer! Very interesting. It must be very scary to go to work knowing that the tornados are out there and may be headed your way!
I'm glad all I have to worry about is snow storms and ice storms that may cause me to be either a)trapped at work becaue no one can make it in, or b) called into work on my day off because I live close and no one can make it in!

I know exactly what you mean. I live less than 2 miles from the hospital and am definitely on that "list" of people to call that can make it in easily.

And yes, tornadoes are scary! They can happen so quickly and are devastating to anything or anyone in it's path. I've lived here all my life and have seen 4 literally fly right over my area. It is eerie!!!