Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chemical
Biological
Explosive
CORE
FORMULARY
PEDIATRIC
FORMULARY
Radiological
Nuclear
Figure I.1
arrives. Each facility's disaster readiness team
must investigate the best means for having quality
supplies that are readily available. This determina-
tion is individual to each facility.
When working with suppliers, Materials
Management should determine the length of time
needed for delivery from the time of the first call.
Additionally, the clinicians will need to determine
the maximum number of casualties the hospital will
be able to treat during this period of time. Based
on the maximum number of casualties before
suppliers' replenishments arrive and the amount of
supplies that could be diverted from other areas of
the hospital, Materials Management will be able to
determine how much additional product must be
kept on hand.
Essential to this plan is working with suppliers
and establishing pre-event orders that can be acti-
vated with a single phone call or email. Each
order will be specific to the individual hospital's
needs by type of disaster using the supply formu-
lary model. This preplanning also will help the
suppliers maintain adequate inventory, which will
assure that the pre-order can be delivered at any
time with complete fill levels.
Other Critical Components
Since disaster scenarios of this size will exceed the
hospital's ability to support casualties, it demands
a community response plan. Work with local agen-
cies, including fire fighters, public health depart-
ment, Civil Defense, any offices of Emergency
Preparedness, and other members participating in
the Metropolitan Medical Response System as well
as with other hospitals and healthcare providers
that service the community. Cooperative agree-
ments should be drafted among all the hospitals
and healthcare providers for mutual support.
Asingle source of communication should be iden-
tified for the entire community, and each hospital
should use this source to request additional supplies
and to coordinate the flow of supplies to the areas
most in need.With the possibility that every hospital
is placing demands on supply sources, this coordi-
nation is imperative to prevent chaos.
This plan should be practiced with the commu-
nity and community agencies to identify where the
plan might need to be revised or strengthened. It is
essential that the preparedness plan(s) be in place
and tested soon. The real danger is not to plan for
the unthinkable.
