Patient Evacuation Techniques

Hospital administrators must weigh dozens of variables when a hospital evacuation is necessary. Evacuations are planned, practiced and updated by administrators and staff. Planning allows staffers to handle incidents inside the hospital, such as fire, or threats from outside. Natural disasters, terrorist attacks or a utilities accident, such as gas leaks, are cause for evacuations. Evacuation-management teams must make judgment calls about whether to evacuate the entire hospital or to move patients to other places within the hospital. Standard techniques are practiced and adapted to fit the critical situation.
  1. Defend in Place

    • Evacuation plans begin by examining the option of keeping patients exactly where they are and providing protection to them there. This technique might be used in the case of fire or a gas or smoke condition. Evacuation managers may instruct staffers to defend in place until they make decisions about further movements. Personnel close the doors and windows to patients' rooms. They cease all normal activities, prepare for further levels of evacuation and keep patients calm and comfortable.

    Horizontal

    • When an event affects part of a hospital but not the entire building, evacuation managers may order the staff to move patients from place to place to get them out of harm's way. Techniques for this include the horizontal evacuation. This means to move patients to the opposite side of the same floor they are on. This technique may be used in the case of a water leak or a fire affecting one side of the building.

    Vertical

    • Sometimes it is necessary to move patients to a different floor to escape danger. The technique for this is called the vertical evacuation. It is common for staff to move the patients to a floor at least two floors below the incident. Equipment for sustaining life and other necessary equipment is moved along with patients. The technique requires quick and coordinated action by the personnel to move patients, keep track of them and restore them to comfort on the new floor.

    Total Evacuation

    • The last-resort option is the total evacuation; this evacuation stage is the most complex. It means hospital personnel -- and sometimes fire, police or military personnel -- move all patients from the hospital to safety. The technique includes gathering all patients in designated departure areas and tagging them with all essential information about identity and course of care. Medical personnel then triage patients by first evacuating the most critically ill. They move all patients to other hospitals or care facilities out of the way of danger.

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