The following is a to-do list for developing an evacuation plan. Thoroughly preparing a facility and staff for a real-world emergency evacuation will ensure the proper care and protection of all patients and ultimately the hospital’s post-event recovery.ĭeveloping an emergency evacuation plan will help ensure patient safety during an emergency and, just as important, increase buy-in from the staff and management. Many facets of healthcare evacuation planning often go overlooked, which is seldom apparent until the moment of crisis. If patients are not provided with safe and realistic means of evacuation in the event of an emergency, how can an organization claim it provides quality care at the facility? While evacuation planning takes time and effort, it offers return on investment in terms of increased patient safety and better risk management.
Mercy Hospital Joplin has been providing services to patients and the community in modular facilities built since the tornado and will open a new 600,000 square-foot facility in 2015.Įmergency evacuation preparedness is on every health facility manager’s priority list. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri (part of Mercy Health System), was destroyed by a tornado on May 22, 2011.
