Hurricane Katrina Summary
William M. Smith, Senior Director of Emergency Preparedness at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), a nonprofit that operates 20 academic, community and specialty hospitals, says lives can be saved with a hospital’s emergency preparedness efforts.
After a number of shooting tragedies were news headlines, UPMC’s CEO at that point in time decided the healthcare system needed to have a program to ensure it could respond if it ever had an active shooter in one of its facilities.
In 2012, tragedy struck when a gunman entered UPMC’s western psychiatric institute and clinic armed with two semiautomatic handguns and began shooting people in the lobby. A hospital therapist was killed and seven other people injured by the gunman, who had a reported history of mental …show more content…
It’s why hospital leaders need to make disaster preparedness a priority.
Know the regulations
Regulations set by government agencies and accrediting bodies exist to ensure healthcare facilities are prepared for worst-case scenarios. Hurricane Katrina first focuses the spotlight on the vulnerability of healthcare’s emergency preparedness when it hit New Orleans in 2001.
The principles of emergency management that resulted from Katrina have not changed much since then, says Joseph L. Cappiello, chairman of Cappiello & Associates in The Villages, Florida. As an official at the Joint Commission, Capiello helped develop the accreditors expanded emergency management standards following Katrina. The same strategies continue to apply, says Cappiello however hospitals must now look at how evolving technology can help them cope during an emergency.
“The facilities that have embraced innovative technologies are the ones that have done the best when an emergency or disaster strikes,” he says. For instance, if physicians can’t get to a facility in a disaster, they can text via cell phones to communicate with staff on the
After a number of shooting tragedies were news headlines, UPMC’s CEO at that point in time decided the healthcare system needed to have a program to ensure it could respond if it ever had an active shooter in one of its facilities.
In 2012, tragedy struck when a gunman entered UPMC’s western psychiatric institute and clinic armed with two semiautomatic handguns and began shooting people in the lobby. A hospital therapist was killed and seven other people injured by the gunman, who had a reported history of mental …show more content…
It’s why hospital leaders need to make disaster preparedness a priority.
Know the regulations
Regulations set by government agencies and accrediting bodies exist to ensure healthcare facilities are prepared for worst-case scenarios. Hurricane Katrina first focuses the spotlight on the vulnerability of healthcare’s emergency preparedness when it hit New Orleans in 2001.
The principles of emergency management that resulted from Katrina have not changed much since then, says Joseph L. Cappiello, chairman of Cappiello & Associates in The Villages, Florida. As an official at the Joint Commission, Capiello helped develop the accreditors expanded emergency management standards following Katrina. The same strategies continue to apply, says Cappiello however hospitals must now look at how evolving technology can help them cope during an emergency.
“The facilities that have embraced innovative technologies are the ones that have done the best when an emergency or disaster strikes,” he says. For instance, if physicians can’t get to a facility in a disaster, they can text via cell phones to communicate with staff on the