Standards and Guidelines for Healthcare Facilities in Emergency

Search the Internet for information on standards and guidelines for healthcare facilities in emergency situations. You can search for accrediting agencies, emergency response plans, National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA), or various real-life scenarios to aid you in answering the questions for the given scenario:

You are the administrator of a 100-bed nursing home with a special 25-bed Alzheimer’s care wing. You are told that your nursing home must be evacuated due to a possible hazardous material found close to the nursing home. As part of the standard operating procedure for the emergency management of the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), notification procedures are to be established, both internally and externally for communicating the need for evacuation.

Based on your understanding of the above topic, answer the following questions:

• What are the issues you may face in evacuating the residents? What specific needs of the Alzheimer’s patients would you need to keep in mind?
• Would your evacuation plan be different if you did not have the Alzheimer’s patients? Why or why not?
• What is the importance of ensuring there are procedures in place for communicating, both within the organization and with other entities involved in a disaster? Which internal and external entities would you notify in case of a disaster? Why?

Now, read the following statements and answer the related questions:

Decontamination of individuals exposed to a contaminant is a critical aspect of a disaster plan. However, there are no clear-cut guidelines for deciding how and when to perform the decontamination. Due to lack of any universally accepted standards related to management of specific disaster scenarios, agencies perform decontamination based on standards they have adopted. In the light of above situation, answer the following questions:

• What is decontamination? What, in your opinion, is the best way to decontaminate an individual? Why?
• When should the decontamination be done? Why?