Evaluation of the hospital emergency plan based on an exercise for a mass casualty incident

Abstract

The hospital emergency plan is an important tool for hospitals in the management of amass casualty incident. It is alegal requirement for hospitals to have such plans in place and to carry out drills. Emergency drills are auseful tool for the training of staff and for the evaluation of existing structures. The emergency plan of the University Hospital Würzburg (UKW) was evaluated during adisaster drill based on predefined drill objectives. The procedures according to the emergency plan of the UKW were practiced during alarge-scale disaster exercise. The exercise objectives were defined as: testing the management structure, deployment of personnel, physical organization, triage, patient flow and communication. Several exercise objectives were defined in advance. An anonymized questionnaire was used to evaluate the achievement of the exercise objectives. When properly trained and practiced the UKW emergency plan is generally well-suited to managing amass casualty event. Improvements need to be made in the communication structure, responsibilities in the treatment areas and staff knowledge of the existing emergency plans and available material. Mass casualty drills are agood tool for the evaluation of hospital emergency plans. Acritical and decisive element for success is the existence of aclear management and communication structure. Agood knowledge of the available material, the contents of the emergency plan and the consistent application of the procedures defined in this plan are essential for acoordinated course of action. This can be achieved by means of regular and mandatory training sessions.