Surge Readiness

The hospital's disaster plan has been written. The recent hospital-wide disaster drill was a success. Your staff members have been educated on their unit's designated role in responding to a surge of patients. Units have updated their list of staff members' telephone numbers. When the time comes to put the disaster plan into action, you are ready.

Think again.

Disaster plans assume that staff members already on duty will remain in place and off-duty staff members will report to work if called in. Will that actually be the case in your facility when disaster strikes? In the event of a disaster, how many of your staff members will report to work? Will adequate reinforcements be available to relieve the staff members responding to the disaster? What barriers would prevent staff members from reporting to work? What can be done to alleviate these barriers?