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Planning for Resilience in Hospital Internal Disaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Ernest Sternberg
Ernest Sternberg*
Affiliation:
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York USA
*
Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Hayes Hall, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14214 USA, E-mail: ezs@buffalo.edu
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Abstract

This article seeks to clarify the terminology and methods of planning to avert hospital internal disaster. It differentiates “crisis” from “disaster” in the in-hospital setting. Preparedness, as contrasted with mitigation, is meant to reduce the likelihood that a crisis will turn into a disaster. Though there are some recurring features of crises, allowing for preparedness through the identification of a few high-likelihood contingencies, crises are subject to numerous, overwhelming uncertainties. These include hazard uncertainty, incident uncertainty, sequential uncertainty, informational uncertainty, consequential uncertainty, cascade uncertainty, organizational uncertainty, and background uncertainty. In view of the uncertainties, the primary aim of planners should not be to try to create plans for ever more contingencies, since contingencies are far too numerous and perhapsapproach infinity, but rather to create capabilities (through proper preparedness) for resilience during crisis. Resilience can be cultivated through improvements in information acquisition and dissemination, communication systems, resource management, mobility management, design for resilience, incident command, and staff versatility.

Keywords

contingenciescrisisdisastereventhazardshospitalincident command systeminternal disasterplanningpreparednessresilienceresource managementriskstrategiesuncertaintiesversatility
Type
Special Reports
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , December 2003 , pp. 291 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2003

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