Special Report: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
JCAHO issues guide to help with disaster planning
Responding to the dilemmas faced by hospitals hit by Hurricane Katrina, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has issued a step-by-step guide called “Standing Together: An Emergency Planning Guide for America's Communities."
The guide is intended to help small, rural, and suburban communities to prepare for and successfully respond to major local and regional emergencies — whether they be hurricanes, floods, terrorist attacks, major infectious outbreaks, hazardous materials spills, or other catastrophic occurrences, says Joint Commission president Dennis S. O'Leary, MD.
“The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is an all-too-recent and stark reminder of the need to anticipate and plan for mass casualty disasters," O'Leary said when releasing the new guide. “Communities need to grasp the reality that they may well be largely on their own for several days following a major disaster."
The planning guide is the culmination of a two-year project funded by the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Services Systems, and the National Center for Emergency Preparedness at Columbia University. The centerpiece of the project involved the convening of two expert roundtable sessions in May and October 2004 to identify challenges, solutions, and recommendations. The national 43-member panel included representatives of federal, state, and local agencies; frontline emergency responders; emergency preparedness planners; and public health and hospital community leaders, among others.
The comprehensive planning guide provides 13 essential steps that local government and public health leaders can use to establish an effective community-based emergency management planning and response process.
The guide is available on-line at www.jointcommission.org/PublicPolicy/ep_guide.htm.
Responding to the dilemmas faced by hospitals hit by Hurricane Katrina, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has issued a step-by-step guide called Standing Together: An Emergency Planning Guide for America's Communities."You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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