From the August 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
What advice do you have for a facility that doesn’t have a disaster plan?
LZ: Get one, but don’t reinvent the wheel. Start by referencing FEMA material on the standardized “Incident Command System” and consider building your program around this proven framework. Get your top planners on board and require them to take and pass coursework from FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute. This is known as NIMS training. Details are easy to find on the Web.
Are paper records secure at your hospital and can they be accessed in a disaster?
LZ: Our paper records are stored off site by contract with a major records storage company. They generally would not be accessible during a major disaster. With the electronic medical record system now fully in place, and our IT redundancies, we fully expect to be able to access the electronic record during all anticipated stress conditions.
To what degree does your facility plan to depend on government resources in the event of a disaster? Can your facility function for an extended period of time without such resources?
LZ: Our plan is for minimal dependency. We have resources on hand to evacuate our own facilities if required (10 shallow draft power boats, 2.5-ton trucks with snorkel kits). We have standing agreements with suppliers for additional diesel pre-positioning as well as medical supplies. In our case, hurricanes are the largest concern. Fortunately, a critical few days notice is generally given and we can put our plan into action.
How can you keep your facility functioning in the event of system breakdown or destruction?
LZ: We have a water well, which is unusual for New Orleans, generators capable of operating all critical systems including chillers and heating, ventilating and air conditioning, satellite Internet, satellite telephone, amateur radio stations. Each hospital in our system has a ham station providing last resort facility-to-facility communications without dependencies on external infrastructure. It works.
DT: Generators should run on piped natural gas. During Hurricane Sandy, there were disruptions to the supply of gasoline and diesel fuel, but none to the supply of piped gas. One of the few potential disruptions to this supply may be in the event of ruptured supply piping during an earthquake but excluding that, natural is the way to go. In addition, we make sure to test our generators every month.
