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Pretraining and Precredentialing Staff for Disaster: A Lesson Learned From the Experience of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2019

Soichiro Kato ,
Akihiko Yamamoto ,
Ichiro Kawachi ,
Takaaki Sakamoto ,
Chikara Kunugi ,
Takehiko Tarui  and
Yoshihiro Yamaguchi
Soichiro Kato*
Affiliation:
Department of Traumatology and Critical Care Medicine, Kyorin University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
Akihiko Yamamoto
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Oita Prefectural Hospital, Oita, Japan
Ichiro Kawachi
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
Takaaki Sakamoto
Affiliation:
Department of Traumatology and Critical Care Medicine, Kyorin University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Chikara Kunugi
Affiliation:
Department of Traumatology and Critical Care Medicine, Kyorin University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Department of Emergency Medicine, Oita Prefectural Hospital, Oita, Japan
Takehiko Tarui
Affiliation:
Department of Traumatology and Critical Care Medicine, Kyorin University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Yoshihiro Yamaguchi
Affiliation:
Department of Traumatology and Critical Care Medicine, Kyorin University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Soichiro Kato, MD; 6-20-2 Shinkawa, Mitaka-city, Tokyo 181-8611, Japan (e-mail: soichiro-kato@umin.ac.jp)
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Abstract

The integration of external staff into a hospital’s disaster response can present technical challenges. Although hospitals will always prefer to use their own staff in disaster response, there have been many historical examples where external staffing is required. During the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes, the Oita Prefectural Hospital required medical professionals to expand disaster response staff. They were able to identify 2 appropriate emergency physicians belonging to a remote hospital who had previously worked at the Oita Prefectural hospital. The physicians were effectively able to supplement the hospital staff, providing care for additional patients, and giving the existing on-duty staff some respite. Based on our experience, we suggest that hospital coalitions and disaster response authorities explore mechanisms of cross-credentialing and cross-training staff to make it easier to share staff in a disaster.

Keywords

pretrainingprecredentialingexternal staffsurge capacityhospital coalition
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 292 - 294
Copyright
© 2019 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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