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Vertical Evacuation Drill of an Intensive Care Unit: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation
Title: Vertical Evacuation Drill of an Intensive Care Unit: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation
Date: 2004
Author: Pat Manion, RN, MS, CCRN, CEN, and Ina J. Golden, RN, BSN, CEN, EMT-P
Institution: Emergency Nurses Association
Bibliographic Entry: Manion, Pat, and Ina J. Golden. “Vertical Evacuation Drill of an Intensive Care Unit: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation.” Disaster Management & Response 2, no. 1, (2004): 14-19.
Electronic Link: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1540248704000100
Article is copyrighted; access article via a library portal or journal subscription.
Key Words: intensive care unit (ICU) patients, vertical evacuation, Emergency Preparedness Committee (EPC), emergency operations center (EOC), emergency department (ED)
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
The complexity and severity of current intensive care unit (ICU) patients would require additional consideration during an evacuation than in previous decades. It is recommended that hospitals have a transport protocol for critical patients. Included in the protocols would be having a physician and respiratory therapist present at all times; having the patient completely monitored physiologically during transport; having emergency medications and a defibrillator available; and moving patients in their ICU beds. In the event of an unplanned evacuation, these recommendations would be unrealistic, especially if patients needed to be moved down flights of stairs, known as vertical evacuation. Vertical evacuation has not often been discussed in literature.
Several goals have been identified for a vertical evacuation drill, including 1) identify resources and time needed to evacuate 12 patients from the ICU, 2) test a newly located emergency operations center (EOC), 3) test internal and external communications to be used during vertical evacuation, 4) evaluate a ‘grab-n-go’ oxygen cylinder, and 5) study the physiologic effects of the evacuation on firefighters.
A drill scenario was planned to include fire and smoke so that a lateral evacuation of patients on hospital beds would not be possible. The drill required patients to be carried down four flights of stairs to the ambulance bay. Participants included healthcare providers, firefighters, and hypothetical patients. Planning meetings included discussing the potential need to transfer patients to ambulance, the emergency department (ED), or other hospitals. The evacuation was later evaluated based on the program goals. The drill allowed the participants to practice the disaster plan and identify needed changes. Multiple lessons were learned from the experience.
Name of Researcher: Alison Stevens
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: May 15, 2008