Hospitals and healthcare professionals must be increasingly prepared for covering shifts during inclement weather. Due to climate change, extreme weather events like hurricanes, super storms, and massive floods are becoming more common. This places a bigger challenge on caregivers as they must offer the same refuge and healing in the middle of a storm or hurricane. In order to become more resilient, you must prepare your hospital for natural disasters. Below are some tips to help you out.
1. Find ways to function without power.
In a severe hurricane, the first thing that you will lose is power. As such, it is essential to place measures that will allow the entire hospital to function …show more content…
Help your staff get to and from work by readying a van with the sole purpose of ferrying caregivers. Other personnel who have gassed up can also help further by giving team members a ride.
3. Conserve energy.
Consider installing combined heat and power (CHP) systems to keep the hospital running despite super storms. These cogeneration systems produce heat and electricity from a single fuel source. This can come from natural gas or biomass. With CHP in place, the strain on a community's energy infrastructure is lessened and fuel consumption is reduced dramatically. Retrocomissioning is another effective strategy. In retrocomissioning, low cost alternatives to energy-intensive operations are identified and implemented to conserve energy and save up on energy-related expenses.
4. Consider hurricanes in redesign efforts.
In places prone to extreme flooding, redesigning is critical to the delivery of healthcare amid inclement weather. Emergency rooms are usually located on the ground floor, for example, but if you are considering the effects of a hurricane, it is best to move it to a higher floor along with electrical units, generators, and kitchens. Installing floodwalls may help, too. These guarantee essential services are protected and available despite the negative effects of a