Healthcare facilities should be ready to recover and move forward after a violent weather event, according to an article on the Northwest Georgia News website. The proper response requires developing plans, practice and effective execution.
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has recently added their concerns about hospital resilience in the aftermath of extreme weather events. AMS suggestions include having medical centers look at their structural designs and, in some cases, relocate critical components to higher ground, the article said.
Healthcare’s critical problem in disasters is supply and demand. Supply decreases when health infrastructure is damaged, but the demand increases as the number of victims adds up.
“Each hospital has the job of seeing how well they are prepared,” Jim Blair, Center for HealthCare Emergency Readiness, said in the article. “It’s a journey, not a destination.”