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A 3-year Health Care Coalition Experience in Advancing Hospital Evacuation Preparedness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2016

John J. Lowe Open the ORCID record for John J. Lowe [Opens in a new window] ,
Keith F. Hansen ,
Kristine K. Sanger  and
Jannah M. Obaid
John J. Lowe*
Affiliation:
Director of Public Health Training and Exercise Programs, Center for Preparedness Education, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska USA Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental, Agricultural, and Occupational Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska USA
Keith F. Hansen
Affiliation:
Associate Director, Center for Preparedness Education, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska USA
Kristine K. Sanger
Affiliation:
Director of Hospital Training and Exercise Programs, Center for Preparedness Education, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska USA
Jannah M. Obaid
Affiliation:
Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Environmental, Agricultural, and Occupational Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska USA
*
Correspondence: John J. Lowe, PhD Department of Environmental Agricultural, and Occupational Health University of Nebraska Medical Center 984320 Nebraska Medical Center Omaha, Nebraska USA 68198-4320, E-mail: jjlowe@unmc.edu
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Abstract

This report outlines a 3-year health care coalition effort to advance and test community capacity for a large-scale hospital evacuation. The multi-year effort utilized a variety workshops, seminars, webinars, tabletops, functional exercises, and culminated with a full-scale exercise testing hospital evacuation. While most hospital evacuation exercises focus on internal movement of patients, this exercise process tested command-level decision making and it tested external partners such as transportation agencies, law enforcement, receiving hospitals, and local emergency management. This process delivered key coalition-building activities and offered a variety of training and exercise opportunities to assist a number of organizations, all at different stages of hospital evacuation planning. The 2012 Hospital Preparedness Program outlined the incorporation of health care coalition activities to transform individual organization preparedness to community-level readiness. This report outlines a health care coalition effort to deliver training and exercises to advance community capacity for a large-scale hospital evacuation.

Lowe JJ, Hansen KF, Sanger KK, Obaid JM. A 3-year Health Care Coalition Experience in Advancing Hospital Evacuation Preparedness. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(6):658–662.

Keywords

disaster responseemergency preparednessevacuation exerciseshealth care coalitionhospital evacuation
Type
Special Reports
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , December 2016 , pp. 658 - 662
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2016 

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