title: Hospital planning for weapons of mass destruction incidents.
abstract: As terrorist attacks increase in fre-quency, hospital disaster plans need to be scrutinized to ensure that they take into account issues unique to weapons of mass destruction. This paper reports a review of the literature addressing hospital experiences with such incidents and the planning lessons thus learned. Construction of hos-pital disaster plans is examined as an ongoing process guided by the disaster planning committee. A review is completed of six special elements of weapons of mass destruction incidents that should be addressed in hospital disaster plans. The paper closes with a dis-cussion of the importance of train-ing and exercises in maintaining and improving the disaster plan.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Ronald W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Michael K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Lindell
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006761:Hospitals; D023481:Terrorism; D014481:United States; D054044:Weapons of Mass Destruction