title: Benchmarking for hospital evacuation: a critical data collection tool.
abstract: In events such as earthquakes or terrorist attacks, hospitals may be victims of disasters. They may need to transfer patients to outside facilities rather than continue to provide on-site care. Following the Northridge earthquake, eight hospitals in the damaged area were the foci of a United States National Science Foundation study that examined the status of the hospitals' pre-event planning, post-event evacuation decision-making, and internal and external evacuation processes. Building on this experience, this paper offers a standardized data collection tool, which will enable researchers to record hospital evacuation information in a systematic manner so that comparable data can be accumulated, evacuation research methods can be improved, and consensus on methods can be reached. The study's principal subjects include: (1) hospital demographics; (2) description of existing disaster response plans; (3) an event's impacts on hospital operations; (4) decision-making and incident command; (5) movement of patients within the facility; (6) movement of patients to off-site institutions; and (7) hospital recovery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California-Irvine Medical Center, Orange, California 92668, USA. schultzc@uci.edu
authors.forename: Carl H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.forename: Kristi L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Auf der Heide
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Olson
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods*; D002140:California; D003625:Data Collection / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods*; D004190:Disasters; D004630:Emergencies; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010360:Patient Transfer / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards*; D011050:Policy Making