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All Hazards Emergency Preparedness

Key Player in a Disaster. Respiratory Therapists do and will continue to play a key role in disasters. Routinely, they are part of the code and trauma team. When Katrina arrived on August 29th the hospital would lose its power, its back-up generators would fail, and Respiratory Therapists would sc

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All Hazards Emergency Preparedness

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    1. All Hazards Emergency Preparedness Respiratory Therapy By Paula Fuller, M.Ed., RRT

    2. Key Player in a Disaster Respiratory Therapists do and will continue to play a key role in disasters. Routinely, they are part of the code and trauma team. When Katrina arrived on August 29th the hospital would lose its power, its back-up generators would fail, and Respiratory Therapists would scramble to manually ventilate all of the their ventilator patients until they could get 40 pneumatically driven ventilators.

    3. Hurricane Aftermath “We rigged oxygen supply tubes together.” “We moved our patients into the hallways away from the windows.” “We only had 32 hours of oxygen left, we did everything we could to conserve oxygen.” “We used H cylinders to serve as a back-up for oxygen.” -AARC Times 2005

    4. Disaster Drills To prepare for an actual disaster, the Hospital Campus conducts Code Yellow disaster drills on a regular basis. Respiratory Therapists participate in all drills. A drill will differ from an actual disaster in only two areas: 1. Call Tree –Each unit or department’s call tree will implemented , but employees will not be told to report to work. 2. Patient/Customer Care – Actual patient/customer care will not be jeopardized for participating in a drill.

    5. Internal and External Disasters Disaster- Any incident, natural or man-made which causes or poses widespread danger to occupants and property to the extent that normal services are disrupted. Internal Disaster- Occurs on the Hospital campus. External Disaster- Occurs at any other health system site or elsewhere in the community.

    6. Emergency Management Plan Activation for Respiratory When the Hospital’s emergency management plan is activated, a Code Yellow alert will be announced over the public address system. Respiratory Therapy will report to their department and they will be directed to the proper areas. Six areas are established on the Hospital campus.

    7. Emergency Management Plan Activation for Respiratory Areas Command Center Nursing Manpower Disaster Triage Family Waiting Area Walking Wounded Supportive Care Location Admitting Office Nursing Staff Office Emergency Department Outpatient Registration Ambulatory Services Surgical Staging Area

    8. Responding to a Disaster To be ready for an actual disaster, all units including Respiratory Therapy will respond: 1. An up-to-date Call Tree. 2. Employees prepared to respond if called. 3. Unit or department-specific emergency management (disaster) plan. **Depending on the extent of a disaster, employees from other health system sites may be asked to participate in an actual disaster or another health system site may need to be used to care for disaster victims.

    9. Responsibilities Assess patient injuries and route patients to areas appropriate for treatment. To provide crisis intervention, counseling, and management for families and significant others. Provide emotional and psychological support to the family and significant other.

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