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Simulation of a Hospital Disaster Plan: A Virtual, Live Exercise
- Source :
- Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. 23:346-353
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2008.
-
Abstract
- Introduction:Currently, there is no widely available method to evaluate an emergency department disaster plan. Creation of a standardized patient data- base and the use of a virtual, live exercise may lead to a standardized and reproducible method that can be used to evaluate a disaster plan.Purpose:A virtual, live exercise was designed with the primary objective of evaluating a hospital's emergency department disaster plan. Education and training of participants was a secondary goal.Methods:A database (disastermed.ca) of histories, physical examination findings, and laboratory results for 136 simulated patients was created using information derived from actual patient encounters.The patient database was used to perform a virtual, live exercise using a training version of the emergency department's information system software.Results:Several solutions to increase patient flow were demonstrated during the exercise. Conducting the exercise helped identify several faults in the hospital disaster plan, including outlining the important rate-limiting step. In addition, a significant degree of under-triage was demonstrated. Estimates of multiple markers of patient flow were identified and compared to Canadian guidelines. Most participants reported that the exercise was a valuable learning experience.Conclusions:A virtual, live exercise using the disastermed.ca patient database was an inexpensive method to evaluate the emergency department disaster plan. This included discovery of new approaches to managing patients, delineating the rate-limiting steps, and evaluating triage accuracy. Use of the patient timestamps has potential as a standardized international benchmark of hospital disaster plan efficacy. Participant satisfaction was high.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Adolescent
Disaster Planning
Physical examination
Emergency Nursing
Simulated patient
User-Computer Interface
Information system
Hospital Planning
Humans
Medicine
Computer Simulation
medicine.diagnostic_test
business.industry
Emergency department
medicine.disease
Laboratory results
Triage
Databases as Topic
Emergency medicine
Emergency Medicine
Female
Medical emergency
Disaster plan
Emergency Service, Hospital
business
Patient database
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19451938 and 1049023X
- Volume :
- 23
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Prehospital and Disaster Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6702959f77e14579b6d55fb09eeb8cb7