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The failure to be able to deal with the fallout of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans caused many overstressed hospital workers to respond in what would later be regarded as a horrific manner. Investigators "were stunned when health care workers charged that a well-regarded doctor and two respected nurses had hastened the deaths of some patients by injecting them with lethal doses of drugs" allegedly in an act of mercy due to the inability of rescue workers to evacuate the patients in an effective fashion" (Fink 2009:1). The New Orleans doctor implicated in the patients' deaths argued that "informed consent is impossible during disasters and that doctors need to be able to evacuate the sickest or most severely injured patients last -- along with those who have Do Not Resuscitate orders -- an approach that she and her colleagues used as conditions worsened after Katrina," given she believed that many patients could not survive an evacuation (Fink 2009:1).
The lack of standard operating procedures and the inability of healthcare workers to cope with the mental strain...
Hospitals today must learn from successful and unsuccessful crisis scenarios, should they be faced with one of their own. Merely being able to treat the physical complaints that arise after a disaster is not enough: hospital staff must be able to understand the additional environmental, psychological, and medical stressors they will face in crisis scenarios.
References
Evaluation of hospital disaster drills: A module-based approach. (2011). Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality. (AHRQ) Retrieved February 26, 2011 at http://www.ahrq.gov/research/hospdrills/introduction.htm
Fink, Sherri. (2009, August 3). Strained by Katrina. The New York Times.
Retrieved February 26, 2011 at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30doctors.html
Medical News Today. Retrieved February 26, 2011 at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/151737.php
Personal freedoms and choice to say is all well and good, but forced evacuations should have been done and the parking lots full of empty buses prove that this can and should have been done had anyone had the temerity to do it. The state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans should fully implement the NRF/NRP frameworks so as to prepare for the next storm, which will
Integrated Emergency Management In the last several years, the concept of integrated emergency management has been continually evolving. This is taking place by focusing on how communities, businesses and government officials are prepared for a host of events ranging from natural disasters to terrorism. In 2007, the UK experienced a series of floods between June and July. This was the largest peace time rescue operation in the history of Britain. (Flin
" While it is true that some plane crashes cannot be prevented, there are measures that can be taken to ensure that when a crash does occur, the proper help gets to the scene in time. The first secondary measure for a plane crash is "Foster informed, empowered individuals and communities." Whether the witness of a crash is a doctor or a hospital secretary, everyone can play a role in assisting
This, he says, is a big challenge considering the fact that all team members along with the top management come from different cultural backgrounds. Polley and Ribbens (1998) in their pioneering research assert that team wellness has got to be tackled in order to create high performance teams. The challenges that need to be over come have been thoroughly researched. The most commonly found problems are: lack of commitment and
Pineda (2012) noted that the tip was wasted entirely due to communication problems, the failure by the police to follow procedures as well as inadequate means-Factors that together bogged down the Norwegian Police's reaction as well as operation on the emergency following the incident. The Gjorv Report also indicated that the nation's only helicopter in the city of Oslo was unusable since its crew was absent on vacation (Blair,2012). This is
Disaster Management The Role of Healthcare in Disaster Management Events such as the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 and the tragically mismanaged response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 would demonstrate the need for greater disaster preparedness at every level of civil order. Critical first-responders, rescue workers and law enforcement groups require the appropriate resources, plan of action and high-level coordination to handle the intensive demands that often arise in the face