Improving Hospital Emergency Responsiveness

A visit to the emergency department (ED) is usually associated with negative thoughts by most people. It creates preconceived images of overcrowded waiting rooms and routine long waits for treatment (Jarousse, 2011). From 1996 to 2006, ED visits increased annually from 90.3 million to 119.2 million (32% increase). During this same time period, the number of EDs has declined by 186 facilities creating the age old lower supply and greater demand concept (Crane & Noon, 2011). There are many contributing factors that have led to an increase in ED visits. A few of these key drivers include lack of primary care access, rising of the uninsured population, dwindling mental health services, and the growing elderly

An emergency is sometimes used interchangeably with disaster, which is a state in which normal practices are put off, and extraordinary measures are taken to prevent a catastrophe. A disaster, on the other hand, is an incident upsetting the normal conditions of being and causing a level of suffering that surpasses the capacity of change to the affected community. Emergency management offers the institutional arrangement and conceptual basis to handle increasing complexity and uncertainty in the weather. As such, most sectors of society now integrate emergency management approaches and principles into their adaptation planning. Emergency managers should apply climate research data to focus emergency mitigation, preparedness, and response actions for their communities. However, immediate challenges that might prevail include preparing for frequent or heavy precipitation and flooding, more intense storms, droughts, heat waves and higher seal level.

Disaster is anything that can occur causing damages, an ecological disruption and deterioration of health and the health services. Disaster can be manmade or natural disasters such as floods. When disasters like flooding or tornadoes that may be accompanied by floods occur, the public health personnel and public health nurses are normally the first people who respond to the emergency, given that they are the people who understand and know the available resources used in providing first aids to the affected victims.

According to Jack Herrmann is Asst. Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine “Disaster management is the preparation for, response to, and recovery from disaster. While there are different understandings of Disaster Management, it is generally viewed as a cycle with the following five key phases:

Natural hazards — are different natural phenomena that disrupt the usual live of a population, destroy and demolish objects of material value. They often have a negative effect on nature, and can happen anywhere in the world. Many different types of natural hazards exist; for example, earth quakes, landslides, floods, snow drifts, hurricanes, droughts, volcano eruptions, storms, etc. Natural hazards can happen independently or can be related to each other. If there is an earthquake, it can lead to a tsunami or massive fires. Some of them happen as a result of mankind’s doings; construction work, depending on the location, can cause snow drifts, or massive fires.

In healthcare organizations such as hospitals and outpatient surgical center, disasters can be especially damaging. For instance, during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans many patients were required to be moved due to the severity of the storm. If proper contingency plans were in place prior to the disaster, there could have procedures for moving patients once a city-wide evacuation notice was

In this assignment the researcher will be looking at the events that unfolded in the 9/11 disaster in America, specifically the circumstances that led up to it, what happened during the disaster and the roles and responsibilities of the public services. This incident would class as a disaster as apposed to an emergency due to the size and scope of the event and the fact that it could not have been handled locally. A disaster is defined as a major disruption of a community or society which causes widespread losses and impacts, and exceeds the ability of the affected community to handle with its own resources. Whereas an emergency is a situation that poses an immediate threat to health, the environment, property or life. In most cases these two words can overlap and be used interchangeably because they are similar but not the same. ‘Though both emergencies and disasters present situations that demand quick action, one can prepare for emergencies but not disasters.’ (Online, 2010)

Disasters of varying degree, natural or manmade, can happen at any time in any area. It is imperative that the necessary emergency preparedness plans are in place and responders are properly trained. While disasters can take on a variety of forms, the plan should be inclusive of all possible threats in the surrounding areas. Public safety and healthcare providers must work together to ensure that they have a cohesive plan of action. They must plan how resources will be delegated as soon as an emergency is announced. Disasters are inevitable but planning reduces panic and confusion, which allows response personnel to react accordingly.

The reason for the research is to see what challenges the nurses encounter, their preparation before disaster. Daniel B.J 2014, stated that productive and safe delivery of critical care in time of disaster is very complicated and requires careful planning, taking into consideration a basic plan that encompasses all disaster types is essential. Healthcare system should

Using a descriptive correlation design for this study, we have systematically distributed the questionnaires using the same question set, to all persons that sought treatment in any one of six local emergency departments between the months of April and October. Each ED was approached three times a week during

Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2014). Introduction to emergency management.

In America have a national network emergency management respond that comprises of public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private firms that provide services prior to, during and after natural and technological disasters. That network includes FEMA and its state and local counterparts, emergency response agencies (e.g., fire departments, emergency medical services agencies, and search and rescue units). Most of this have what is call emergency practice that is carried out as schedule to prepare those involve for any emergency incident. (Waugh,

While natural disasters such as floods, drought and hurricanes are commonly thought to occur due to environmental forces such as weather, climate and tectonic movements; a deeper investigation into the ‘disaster’ displays other contributing forces. Human factors have a large, if not equal, contribution to the occurrance and outcome of such disasters (Pelling, 2001). As Pelling (2001) argues, there is both a physical and human dimension to ‘natural disasters’. The extent to which the natural occurrence of a physical process, such as a flood or earthquake, impacts on society is constructed by that society, creating a ‘disaster’ as measured by a

Public health disasters, whether the result of natural, industrial, infectious disease, or bioterrorism events, capture the world’s attention and through its devastating effects, reinforce the importance of strengthening public health emergency preparedness and response efforts. A disaster, in public health terms, is a destructive event that results in the need for a wide range of emergency resources to assist those who are effected by the event (Geale, 2012). Thus, public health emergency preparedness and response is “the capacity of the public health and health care systems, communities, and individual, to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from health [disasters], particularly those whose scale, timing, or unpredictability threatens to overwhelm routine capabilities” (Jennings, 2016).

A hospital’s emergency room (ER) is typically the site for presentation of patients from a disaster or bioterrorism event. Nurses working in the ER setting are the first to treat these patients. Thus it is of great importance to have a plan in place that can effectively meet the unique needs of this type of situation. I am employed in the ER at Good Samaritan Hospital (GSH) in Vincennes, Indiana. Our ER has its own set criteria that fits into the overall disaster plan of the hospital. Since the ER is the primary intake location at GSH, I chose to evaluate our ER’s disaster plan.