title: A 3-year Health Care Coalition Experience in Advancing Hospital Evacuation Preparedness.
abstract: This report outlines a 3-year health care coalition effort to advance and test community capacity for a large-scale hospital evacuation. The multi-year effort utilized a variety workshops, seminars, webinars, tabletops, functional exercises, and culminated with a full-scale exercise testing hospital evacuation. While most hospital evacuation exercises focus on internal movement of patients, this exercise process tested command-level decision making and it tested external partners such as transportation agencies, law enforcement, receiving hospitals, and local emergency management. This process delivered key coalition-building activities and offered a variety of training and exercise opportunities to assist a number of organizations, all at different stages of hospital evacuation planning. The 2012 Hospital Preparedness Program outlined the incorporation of health care coalition activities to transform individual organization preparedness to community-level readiness. This report outlines a health care coalition effort to deliver training and exercises to advance community capacity for a large-scale hospital evacuation. Lowe JJ , Hansen KF , Sanger KK , Obaid JM . A 3-year health care coalition experience in advancing hospital evacuation preparedness. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(6):658-662.
authors.affiliation: 1Director of Public Health Training and Exercise Programs,Center for Preparedness Education,College of Public Health,University of Nebraska Medical Center,Omaha,NebraskaUSA.
authors.forename: John J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2893-1312
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lowe
authors.affiliation: 3Associate Director,Center for Preparedness Education,College of Public Health,University of Nebraska Medical Center,Omaha,NebraskaUSA.
authors.forename: Keith F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: 4Director of Hospital Training and Exercise Programs,Center for Preparedness Education,College of Public Health,University of Nebraska Medical Center,Omaha,NebraskaUSA.
authors.forename: Kristine K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Sanger
authors.affiliation: 5Graduate Research Assistant,Department of Environmental,Agricultural, and Occupational Health,College of Public Health,University of Nebraska Medical Center,Omaha,NebraskaUSA.
authors.forename: Jannah M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Obaid
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006265:Health Care Coalitions; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D018635:Rescue Work / Q000592:standards*
keywords:  AAR After Action Report;  CPE Center for Preparedness Education;  EMS Emergency Medical Services;  EOC Emergency Operations Center;  IC Incident Command; disaster response; emergency preparedness; evacuation exercises; health care coalition; hospital evacuation