title: [How hospitals should prepare for exceptional situations].
abstract: Whenever case load grossly exceeds the available resources of a hospital, properly planned extraordinary measures are needed to boost performance. The crucial elements to be included in hospital disaster plans are: a well prepared alarm call system, simple lines of command with clear-cut responsibilities, measures to admit, triage and treat patients, a concept for internal and external communication including the needed tools. Such a disaster plan, based on an educated guess upon possible disasters and tailored to a realistic estimate of the hospital's resources, regularly needs to be checked and taught to the staff This article proposes guidelines how to successfully set up a hospital disaster plan.
authors.affiliation: Dekan SAMK, Chur. leutenegger.chur@gmx.ch
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leutenegger
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D010343:Patient Admission; D013557:Switzerland; D014218:Triage