Foreseeable disasters can come in all shapes and sizes, from a power failure that affects only your facility to an earthquake that sends hundreds of casualties to your emergency department.

For many, there is nothing more beautiful than watching Mother Nature in action. Witnessing the power of 30-foot waves crashing against the beach or taking a boat down a winding river while it cuts its way through a valley can be an amazing experience. Unfortunately, sometimes that power manifests itself as a natural disaster. The following is an overview of four types of natural disasters and the specific injuries usually encountered by a hospital.

Power outages can strike without warning. For some, they are a minor inconvenience that lasts only a few moments. But some outages can last for many days, endangering the health of people who depend on ventilators and other electrical devices to remain healthy and alive.

As we have witnessed through recent natural disasters, hospitals are not immune to power loss. Even a brief disruption in power can affect many critical systems within the hospital. Medical vacuum is one example.

Most hospitals rely on a central source for their vacuum. Generally, a pump, or pumps, in the basement creates the vacuum that is delivered throughout the hospital through a series of pipes. Without electricity, the pump cannot function, and the vacuum is lost. Let’s review how this impacts normal hospital function and ways to mitigate this issue.

It’s a nightmare scenario, but if your hospital experiences a total power outage, you still need to care for patients. You might be able to navigate the darkened rooms with a flashlight and emergency lighting, but how will you oxygenate that ventilated patient? How will you suction them?

Today’s hospitals must be ready for everything. Whether it means complying with the 250 yard rule, or dealing with a regional or national disaster, or, as has been made so painfully clear, managing the patient surge generated by a national pandemic like COVID, hospitals must be prepared. Unfortunately, disaster can take many forms: earthquakes, floods, disease, and acts of terrorism are just a few. Since there is no such thing as a “normal disaster,” hospitals must be prepared to handle anything the world throws at them. In this article, we will discuss four obstacles a hospital can face when a disaster strikes:

Hospital disaster preparedness is so much more than simply writing out a series of steps to be taken in an emergency situation. It’s not something to be done once and then forgotten until needed. Instead, once the plan is created, it should be periodically evaluated, tested, and updated to fill any gaps. We recommend examining your plan at least once every two years.

There are a few different ways that your hospital can audit its plan. These audit methods have varying levels of complexity, but all of them will serve to strengthen your hospital’s current disaster preparedness plan.

Preparing your hospital to handle a disaster is far from a simple process. Not only are there a number of types of disasters that can occur, the coordination of many different departments and disciplines is required.

An internal disaster can occur in many forms, from a fire in the hospital’s kitchen, to a chemical spill, to a bomb threat. With the multitude of potential hazards, developing a plan to keep your hospital functioning during these times can be quite a challenge.

A large fire in the community, a train derailment, a tornado that destroys several homes in town, a bioterrorism attack–these are all examples of external disasters that can bring a sudden influx of patients to your hospital.  Is your hospital ready?