By Healthcare Facilities Today

The successful evacuation of about 6,000 people from various NYC healthcare facilities due to Hurricane Sandy, including five city hospitals, speaks to the great strides the industry has made in emergency response planning after Hurricane Katrina, says an article in the NFPA Journal. Another marker of success is that some institutions which did loose utility power did not have to evacuate, having provisioned themselves appropriately to ride out the storm.

NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities 2012 edition has expanded sections on emergency response planning. Chapter12 of NFPA 99 is entirely devoted to emergency management. This includes developing a hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA). This covers threats to the facility and ways to mitigate them. Once the HVA is set up, NFPA 99 covers how to set up an emergency operations plan (EOP). This covers how to keep a facility's critical functions operational during an emergency, as well as how to prepare for an evacuation. Training on and testing the EOP twice a year is a minimum requirement of NFPA 99.

The Joint Commission has similarly expanded its emergency preparedness provisions and healthcare organization have largely complied with the amplified preparedness requirements, says the article. Though the National Fire Protection Association is confident in the adequacy of NFPA 99 in its current state, it will review research conducted by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), which is surveying 500 hospitals affected by Hurricane Sandy in regards to their emergency management plans and electrical systems, says the article.  

The NFPA's Standards Council also approved the development of a new standard on mass evacuation. The standard will detail evacuation stages and roles, giving guidance on when to shelter in place and when to evacuate.

Read the article.