what do you do during a tornado?

[abbaking]

Okay, I know this is a random post, but I am so curious as to what hospitals do in the mid-west USA during a tornado warning/watch. Was watching "Storm Stories" on the weather channel and tornado's were the topic. In area's of the USA that are prone to tornado, what is the plan in case this happens?

[Rob72, ASN, RN]

Move in, move down, lockdown & cover is the rule of thumb. Move patients towards the core of the building; move to lower floors, when possible; close all blids/windows/doors/etc.; provide blankets/pads, etc., for shielding.

Interestingly, a co-worker completed his BS-BSN two years ago, and one of his leadership essay assignments was to formulate a plan for dealing with delegation and staffing during a complete loss of power in a small hospital. Not a huge problem for him, as a former Ranger/ED tech, but it knocked quite a few of his classmates for a serious decisional loop.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

We call a Code Grey, move our pts out into the hallway and hope for the best. We had to do it earlier in the year; tornado missed the hospital by about half a mile.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

I've done the HEICS training too...and we were just discussing this yesterday as we had some horrendous weather move thru...in our unit, one side is all windows, on the other are windows to a hall that runs along an all glass atrium. Pretty much...we move who we can to the middle of the unit, move the other ones as far to the inside of the rooms as we can (the ones on vents), cover the isolettes with heavy blankets and we head to the center rooms that are our offices, OR, etc. We were also told to remove the O2 regulators from the walls if we have time so that they don't blow out and become missiles. Then you tuck your head down and pray. Nothing else you can do.

[Scotteraa]

ROB72 had some very good points to work off of. We posted a tornado procedure to assist people with customization of their plan (http://www.phillipsllc.com/tornado_emergencies.asp). In each tornado assessment we have participated in, the core points of emergency communications to stand up the plan, movement away from windows and if safe (which is quite challenging for high acuity areas or long term care facilities - more appropriate for Assisted Living / Senior Independent Living) moving down are all consistent actions. There are only a handful of disasters that facilitate training for staff on immediate response: fire, tornado, earthquake, active shooter, loss of commercial power / emergency power and loss of medical gases. A few others that can be thrown in based on where you are and vulnerability, but this is a good starting point.

[Jenni811, RN]

I live in the midwest and we had a tornado the same day Joplin did. Didn't make headlines because it was nowhere near as bad....but a tornado did hit the hospital. i was working that day, and we got patients out in the hallway and shut doors. It's the best you can do when you work on the 6th floor. No way are we getting vented patients in the basement...yikes!