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Crisis Management of SARS in a Hospital
Title: Crisis Management of SARS in a Hospital
Date: 2004
Author: Delon Wu, Li-Chu Yang, Sou-Shan Wu
Institution: National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd.
Bibliographic Entry: Wu, Delon, Li-Chu Yang, and Sou-Shan Wu. “Crisis Management of SARS in a Hospital.” Journal of Safety Research 35 (2004): 345-349.
Key Words: crisis management, SARS, attention-based view, SOP, containment and sorting strategy
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
This article documents the management of a large general hospital suddenly struck by an in-hospital outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (SARS). A Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) was used to manage the crisis, and the procedures included: 1) containment of SARS patients on a specific floor and evacuation of patients from infected and nearby floors, 2) the sorting of the hospital into areas and floors to avoid cross contact, 3) triage of patients into groups by risks, 4) closing of the emergency room and outpatient clinics and 5) set-up of an outdoor fever screening station and emergency service.
Results found that the situation was quickly controlled following implementation of the procedures. The core argument is that crisis managerial behavior is the result of how managers channel and distribute the attention of their crisis sense. The impact on industry is dependent on the decisions by managers on what risk issues and actions to take relating to risk independency, efficiency, safety priority, and transparency. Risk issues and actions taken depend largely on the crisis sense and how management responds to leadership, resource, and execution.
As part of the final discussion, an integrated framework for SARS crisis management was developed for distribution and organizational attention. The model’s fundamental components are: 1) the SOP to create and meet needs with levels, 2) risk issues and actions taken, 3) attention to crisis sense, 4) leadership, 5) resource supply chain management and 6) execution process.
Name of Researcher: Alison Stevens
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: April 30, 2008