Fluent Essays

Review each others ideas and share thoughts on literature and methodology to improve the quality and depth of work. Each project is important to its audience so be thoughtful and helpful. Attached 2 files from classmate to make some suggestion. Write 250 or more to each one first_draft_tariq.doc my_first_draft_1.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Running head: EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN Evacuation Emergency Operation Plan Tariq 1 EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 2 Abstract Emergencies and disasters may take place at any time anywhere, including in healthcare facilities. In this case, the hazards may be either natural or human-made, while emergencies may include building collapse. An example of a natural disaster is the occurrence of floods in an area, while human-made incidents include terror attack. King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital has developed a program for responding to such events when they take place. An emergency operation plan for evacuating patients is necessary for the hospital to minimize the risk of patients injured in case of the occurrence of an incident. Since the current evacuation program involves moving the patients from one building to the other within the same setting, the plan needs to be improved since the entire environment may be affected in case of an emergency. Evacuation of patients is among the critical practices conducted during an emergency period to ensure continuity of operations and; therefore, it needs to be considered in an emergency operation plan. The aim of developing this capstone project is to develop an emergency operation plan for evacuating patients within King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital to improve the current evacuation program. The existing facilitys evacuation plan facility is somehow ineffective since the building where the patients are moved to in case of an emergency is within the hospital setting. This indicates that when a major disaster takes place, both the operation buildings and the evacuating structure can be affected. Therefore, an emergency operation plan for full evacuation needs to be developed. EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 3 Contents Evacuation Emergency Operation Plan ........................................................................................................ 4 Statement of Need ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Purpose...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Need for the Project .................................................................................................................................. 6 Examples of Facilities Affected by Disasters. ...................................................................................... 6 Lesson Learned from the Cases. ........................................................................................................... 7 Significant Disasters in Saudi Arabia. .................................................................................................. 7 An Implication of the Disasters Occurrences...................................................................................... 10 Literature Review........................................................................................................................................ 11 Guiding Principles .................................................................................................................................. 11 Evacuation Process Overview................................................................................................................. 12 Clinical Unit Preparation. ................................................................................................................... 13 Internal Patient Transport.................................................................................................................... 13 Discharge Site Operations................................................................................................................... 14 Assembly Point Operations................................................................................................................. 14 Staging and External Transport........................................................................................................... 14 Patients Tracking, Family Notification and Patient Destination Team. .............................................. 15 Methods ...................................................................................................................................................... 16 I. Moving the patients to the assembly point within the facility setting. ............................................ 16 II. Waiting for a notification from the Incident Commander .............................................................. 17 III. Determining the patients to discharge and those to transfer to the receiving facility. ................ 17 IV. Evacuating patients from the assembly point to an external facility that is nearby. ................... 17 V. Evacuating staffs to the receiving hospital...................................................................................... 18 Final Product ........................................................................................................................................... 18 References ................................................................................................................................................... 20 EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 4 Evacuation Emergency Operation Plan The rate at which emergencies and disasters are taking place has increased over the last three decades (Bish et al., 2014). These incidents take place at any time in any place and therefore, there is need to make prior preparation. According to Bish et al. (2014), different types of emergencies and disasters have taken place within the last few decades causing a significant impact not only to the communities involved but also in the healthcare facilities (Bish et al., 2014). Several centers have been affected by emergencies such as fire outbreak and terror attacks, among others. In response to the incident, several hospitals have prepared themselves for future events in different ways. King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital is one of the hospitals that has made prior preparations to avoid any injuries to the patients and the staff in case of an occurrence of an emergency or a disaster. In this case, one of the preparations that King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital has put in place is the partial evacuation of patients among other individuals and resources to ensure continuity of operations. Currently, the facility has built a structure within the hospital setting for the partial evacuation of patients when an incident such as flooding takes place. However, only a few incidents, such as a fire outbreak can be avoided through such a kind of movement. These include the minor events of fire and terror attack. However, if a natural disaster such as an earthquake, a tornado, or flooding takes place, the partial evacuation plan that the facility has set cannot be effective (Bish et al., 2014). Since no one can predict the type of an emergency or a disaster that can take place at a given time, King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital needs to develop a plan for a full evacuation of its people and resources to improve on the current partial evacuation plan. The developed plan will also ensure the continuity of the facility’s operation and reduce the chances of patients and staff from being affected by the impact of the incident. EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 5 Statement of Need A full evacuation of patients and other resources within King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital is necessary due to the rate at which emergencies and disaster are taking place within healthcare settings. Though the hospital has already set up a partial evacuation plan, the program may not be effective in case of an occurrence of a major disaster such as floods, earthquake or tornadoes. This is because when such incidents take place, they will not affect only a particular structure but the entire region. In this case, full evacuation involves moving patients and other necessary operations from the facility to another area away from the affected region. Besides, partial evacuation is moving from one area to another within the facility settings. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a project involving the full shifting of King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital in case of an occurrence of a disaster. Purpose The key reason for developing the capstone project is to improve the current evacuation plan of King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital from partial to full evacuation to ensure continuity of operations in case of an occurrence of an incident. The partial evacuation plan is only necessary when the event that takes place is of little magnitude in that it only affects a small area within the facility. Within Saudi Arabia, almost every healthcare facility has set up a full evacuation plan due to the rate at which various institutions are affected by disasters. This implies that King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital also needs to make such a plan. However, multiple procedures and policies are necessary for the program to be effective, and therefore such practices need to be discussed in the project among other essential operations in King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital. EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 6 Need for the Project Examples of Facilities Affected by Disasters. Both human-made and natural disasters are real-life occurrences (Rimstad et al., 2014). Hospitals may spend a large amount of money and much time while preparing for emergencies to ensure that their existence does not interfere with their normal operations. In this case, every hospital needs to prepare for such situations since some come without posing a warning. There is a need for every institution to make a plan for evacuating whenever an incident occurs, since disasters may take place in any country regardless of their conditions. Whenever such events take place, they may affect a large number of hospitals, and if such facilities were not prepared, their operations might come to a standstill. For example, in August 2017, many healthcare facilities in the southeastern region of Texas were significantly affected by the occurrence of Hurricane Harvey (Bish & Gausche-Hill, 2017). The hurricane caused flooding on a large area where some of the facilities could not continue with their operations due to the condition. All patients within the affected facilities were evacuated to different healthcare facilities where the flood could not reach. Shortly after the occurrence of Hurricane Harvey, another incident of Hurricane Irma took place leading to the closure of about 40 healthcare facilities in Florida. Patients who were in these facilities were evacuated to different healthcare facilities to ensure the continuity of their healthcare practices. During the evacuation period, significant challenges were experienced due to impassable roads and power outages. These real-life instances should serve as examples for other facilities to prepare for such events (Bish & Gausche-Hill, 2017). Though the two incidents had taken place in the United States, they occurred in different states. This is an indication that such conditions may take place in any region. The fact that impassable roads and power outages significantly affected the evacuation process, it implies that every healthcare facility should consider how the evacuation will be conducted in the case where the power and the condition of EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 7 roads may be affected. Since many hospitals are affected every year by different disasters, King Abdulaziz Specialty Hospital has no unique characteristics that can exclude it from experiencing such events. Lesson Learned from the Cases. Healthcare systems in the entire world have learned significant lessons from the occurrence of the two recent disasters in the United States alongside other incidents of Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina (Bish & Gausche-Hill, 2017). Every country across the world is susceptible to natural disasters. Besides, different types of human-made incidents such as biological weapons and bombing may strike any country anytime. Such events cannot be predicted, and that is the reason as to why various institutions are supposed to be prepared for any occurrence. Among different areas where the incidents can take place, healthcare facilities are considered to be the most susceptible place due to its condition. The reason why healthcare facilities are considered to be more vulnerable to disasters and emergencies is that the majority of individuals found in the area cannot support themselves when an incident takes place (Bish & Gausche-Hill, 2017). Most of the individuals within the facility already have health problems which can deteriorate even when a low magnitude incident takes place. This implies that healthcare facilities are supposed to be the areas where disasters need to be mitigated in all ways possible. Significant Disasters in Saudi Arabia. King Abdulaziz Specialty is located in Saudi Arabia, and therefore it is necessary to review substantial disasters in the region. Saudi Arabia is considered to be prone to several types of natural disasters. The North-western part of the country is susceptible to volcanic hazards and earthquakes while the western and the central part of the nation is prone to floods, mainly during heavy season periods. In mountainous areas, landslides may occur at any time, especially in the southwestern regions of the country. Besides, dust storms and shifting sand-dunes are considered to be a severe natural hazard experienced in EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 8 cities found in the eastern and central area of Saudi Arabia. Dust storms are significant in the current years due to the cities expanded recently as well as the development of infrastructure and roads. Flash Floods. According to natural hazards statistical analysis conducted in Saudi Arabia over the last few decades specifically from 1982 to 2005, it was found that floods were the most frequent type of disaster experienced in the country (Chen et al., 2015). The average rate at which floods occurred in the region was found to be seven times in every year. The occurrence of floods in the country caused a significant impact which was estimated to be worth $19 million every year. The floods were found to be brought about by the substantial change in global pattern in different arid regions, especially Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, areas that received a little amount of rainfall are considered to be prone to floods when heavy rain is experienced in such areas. Due to the increased rainfall intensity along with improper planning of the urban development and settlements have been considered as one of the reasons why Saudi Arabian regions are experiencing massive floods (Chen et al., 2015). These conditions have increased the severity of flooding since the rate of absorption of water into the ground has reduced. One of the instances of floods was found around Jeddah region in 2009 where rainfall of over 90mm was experienced in the area. The rain fell for about four hours, causing significant floods that made several people evacuate from the affected regions to the places where there were little or no floods. The floods were deemed to be the worst incident experienced in the country over the last 27 years. The event killed over 100 people, and approximately 350 individuals were reported to be missing (Rimstad et al., 2014). Economically, the loss that was incurred in the affected region was found to be approximately one billion Saudi Riyal. A similar hazard was experienced in the country two years later, causing a more significant loss compared to the previous one. The rainfall was about 110mm that occurred on 26th January 2011 in Jeddah EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 9 City. The death cases experienced in the region was uncountable along with significant loss of property, especially in the low lying areas. Volcanic Hazards and Earth Quakes. Between April and June 2009, over 30,000 cases of the earthquake were experienced in the northwestern part of Saudi Arabia. After the analysis of the incident was conducted on 19th May 2009, 19 earthquakes were recorded simultaneously where all of them were found to have a magnitude of four (Hanfling et al., 2013). Among the earthquakes experienced in the region, the most significant one had a magnitude of 5.4. Large magnitude earthquakes caused much damage to structures, especially in Al-Eis town, which is located 40 miles from Medina City. A surface rupture of 8 miles was experienced in the area from the northwestern part towards the northern side due to the volcanic effect of the earthquakes. Some of the earthquakes that occurred in the area were found to be significant since they originated from volcanic fields. However, it was unclear whether the volcanic activity resulted from tectonic forces or triggered by the effect of magma movement beneath the volcanic areas. The earthquakes that occurred in Saudi Arabia in 2009 due to the volcanic activities were considered to be historical since such an incident took place approximately 1400 years ago (Hanfling et al., 2013). According to the investigation that was conducted by scientists during the period, it was found that there are high chances of other volcanic eruptions to take place in the near future since the magma activity is still active especially near Madinah City. Dust Storms. Dust storms are also a frequent and potential natural hazard experienced in Saudi Arabia. Such incidents significantly affect daily activities conducted within various parts of the country within short time intervals. The most significant problem associated with the occurrence of dust storms is reduced visibility that causes a high rate of traffic accidents and aircraft issues within the susceptible regions (Hunt, 2016). Such incidents also cause severe environmental effects in the areas affected, especially the spread of diseases from one area to EVACUATION EMERGENCY OPERATION PLAN 10 another. Patients experiencing lung problems are considered to be among the individuals who are more susceptible to illnesses brought about by dust storms. Dust storms are also associated with an increased level of mechanical and telecommunication damage, as well as interfering with soil fertility and crops damage. Sandstorm incidents are deemed to be frequent between March and May, and therefore people tend to prepare themselves between these months to avoid potential impact (Hunt, 2016). The dust that strikes the area is deemed to originate from arid parts of the country through the Arabian Peninsula. Winds transport these dust from southwestern parts to the east. One of the most significant incidents of dust storm was experienced between March 26 and 27 in 2011. The storm moved for over 500 miles affecting various structures across the Arabian Peninsula. An Implication of the Disasters Occurrences. Based on the instances of disasters experienced in different parts of the world especially in the United States and Saudi Arabia, it implies that every country can experience an incident at any time (Kearns & Cairns, 2014). These disasters are considered to be associated with a significant loss of life and damage to structures. In such cases, healthcare facilities are among the most affected areas due to the occurrence of such events. When the disasters take place within a healthcare facility, it tends to affect the operations undertaken within the region, thus causing more harm to the patients. Such effects have called for the development of projects for mitigating the impact caused by such events. Besides, several healthcare facilities have developed evacuation programs to enhance the continuity of care among the patients within the affected regions to reduce more impact on them (K ... Purchase answer to see full attachment