Hospitals Mainly Prepared for Big Disasters, according to a Just-released Survey

A survey concluded that almost all hospitals have response plans in place for chemical releases, natural disasters, epidemics, and biological incidents. However, significantly fewer have plans for explosive or incendiary incidents, according to a report released March 24 in National Health Statistics Reports. In Hospital Preparedness for Emergency Response: United States, 2008, the authors summarized hospital preparedness for responding to public health emergencies, including mass casualties and epidemics of naturally occurring diseases such as influenza. Additional findings concluded: all hospitals had an emergency response plan for at least one of the six hazards studied, nearly all hospitals had emergency response plans that specifically addressed chemical accidents or attacks, which were not significantly different from the prevalence of plans for natural disasters, epidemics, or pandemics, and biological accidents or attacks, significantly fewer hospitals had plans for nuclear or radiological accidents or attacks than for chemical accidents or attacks and natural disasters, significantly fewer hospitals had plans for explosive or incendiary accidents, and a little more than two thirds — 67.9 percent — of hospitals had plans for all six hazards. Security magazine Bloggers can get the full report at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr037.pdf