Patient needs in evacuation of a tertiary oncology center

Rune Rimstad, MD, MSc, PhD; Erik Løkkevik, MD; Knut Erling Juul-Hansen, MD; Anders Holtan, MD

doi:10.5055/jem.0626

Authors

Rune Rimstad, MD, MSc, PhD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9374-5188
Erik Løkkevik, MD
Knut Erling Juul-Hansen, MD
Anders Holtan, MD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.0626

Keywords:

hospitals, evacuation, needs assessment, continuity of care, disaster planning

Abstract

To inform ongoing contingency planning, hospital staff conducted a cross-sectional survey of patients’ needs in the event of a full-facility evacuation of a tertiary oncology center. Both outpatients and inpatients were included. Of the total of 269 patients, 76.6 percent were able to evacuate by walking out of the hospital and be transported sitting. Only 30 patients needed evacuation by an ambulance. Assessment of the lowest acceptable level of care after evacuation revealed that 66.5 percent of the patients could be discharged to their own home, including 40.8 percent of all inpatients. Due to the need to continue specialized cancer treatment, fewer patients could be transferred to other hospitals than found in previous studies of general acute care hospitals.

Author Biographies

Rune Rimstad, MD, MSc, PhD

Medicine, Health and Development, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Erik Løkkevik, MD

Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Knut Erling Juul-Hansen, MD

Division of Emergencies and Critical Care, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Anders Holtan, MD

Division of Emergencies and Critical Care, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

References

Kreinin A, Lyansberg A, Yusupov M, et al.: Fire disaster readiness: Preparation for the evacuation of medical facilities during fires in Haifa, Israel, 2016. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2019; 13(2): 375–379.

Kaliamoorthy I, Reddy MS, Rajakumar A, et al.: Safe emergency evacuation of a tertiary care hospital during the “once in a century” floods in Chennai, India. Indian J Crit Care Med. 2016; 20(2): 104-108.

Wyte-Lake T, Griffin AR, Dobalian A: Supporting staff through a complete hospital evacuation and extended displacement period. J Healthc Manag. 2018; 63(3): 195-209.

Iwata O, Kawase A, Iwai M, et al.: Evacuation of a tertiary neonatal centre: Lessons from the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. Neonatology. 2017; 112(1): 92-96.

Nagata T, Himeno S, Himeno A, et al.: Successful hospital evacuation after the Kumamoto earthquakes, Japan, 2016. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2017; 11(5): 517-521.

Yanagawa Y, Kondo H, Okawa T, et al.: Lessons learned from the total evacuation of a hospital after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. J Emerg Manag. 2017; 15(4): 259-263.

Murakami M, Ono K, Tsubokura M, et al.: Was the risk from Nursing-Home evacuation after the Fukushima accident higher than the radiation risk? PLoS One. 2015; 10(9): e0137906.

Igarashi Y, Tagami T, Hagiwara, et al.: Long-term outcomes of patients evacuated from hospitals near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake. PLoS One. 2018; 13(4): e0195684.

Ricci KA, Griffin AR, Heslin KC, et al.: Evacuate or shelter-inplace? The role of corporate memory and political environment in hospital-evacuation decision making. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2015; 30(3): 1-6.

McGinty MD, Burke TA, Barnett DJ, et al.: Hospital evacuation and shelter-in-place: Who is responsible for decision-making? Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2016; 10(3): 320-324.

McGinty MD, Burke TA, Resnick B, et al.: Decision processes and determinants of hospital evacuation and shelter-in-place during hurricane sandy. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2017; 23(1): 29-36.

Rozenfeld RA, Reynolds SL, Ewing S, et al.: Development of an evacuation tool to facilitate disaster preparedness: Use in a planned evacuation to support a hospital move. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2017; 11(4): 479-486.

Lin A, Taylor K, Cohen RS: Triage by resource allocation for inpatients: A novel disaster triage tool for hospitalized pediatric patients. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2018; 12(6): 692-696.

Acar YA, Mehta N, Rich MA, et al.: Using standardized checklists increase the completion rate of critical actions in an evacuation from the operating room: A randomized controlled simulation study. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2019; 34(4): 393-400.

Bish DR, Tarhini H, Amara R, et al.: Modeling to optimize hospital evacuation planning in EMS systems. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2017; 21(4): 503-510.

Farra S, Hodgson E, Miller ET, et al.: Effects of virtual reality simulation on worker emergency evacuation of neonates. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2019; 13(2): 301-308.

Lee PH, Fu B, Cai, et al.: The effectiveness of an on-line training program for improving knowledge of fire prevention and evacuation of healthcare workers: A randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2018; 13(7): e0199747.

Lowe JJ, Hansen KF, Sanger KK, et al.: A 3-year health care coalition experience in advancing hospital evacuation preparedness. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016; 31(6): 658-662.

Haverkort JJ, Biesheuvel TH, Bloemers FW, et al.: Hospital evacuation: Exercise versus reality. Injury. 2016; 47(9): 2012-2017.

Salway RJR, Adler Z, Williams T, et al.: The challenges of a vertical evacuation drill. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2019; 34: 25-29.

Rimstad R, Holtan A: A cross-sectional survey of patient needs in hospital evacuation. J Emerg Manag. 2015; 13(4): 295-301.