Effective plans for hospital system response to earthquake emergencies

Hospital systems play a critical role in treating injuries during disaster emergency responses. Simultaneously, natural disasters hinder their ability to operate at full capacity. Thus, cities must develop strategies that enable hospitals’ effective disaster operations. Here, we present a methodolog...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2020-08, Vol.11 (1), p.1-12, Article 4325
Main Authors: Ceferino, Luis, Mitrani-Reiser, Judith, Kiremidjian, Anne, Deierlein, Gregory, Bambarén, Celso
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Ambulances
Disasters
Earthquake damage
Earthquakes
Emergency medical services
Emergency plans
Emergency preparedness
Emergency procedures
Emergency response
Health care
Hospital systems
Hospitals
Humanities and Social Sciences
Injuries
Injury prevention
Methodology
multidisciplinary
Natural disasters
Patients
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Seismic activity
Spatial distribution
System effectiveness
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Summary:Hospital systems play a critical role in treating injuries during disaster emergency responses. Simultaneously, natural disasters hinder their ability to operate at full capacity. Thus, cities must develop strategies that enable hospitals’ effective disaster operations. Here, we present a methodology to evaluate emergency response based on a model that assesses the loss of hospital functions and quantifies multiseverity injuries as a result of earthquake damage. The proposed methodology can design effective plans for patient transfers and allocation of ambulances and mobile operating rooms. This methodology is applied to Lima, Peru, subjected to a disaster scenario following a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. Our results show that the spatial distribution of healthcare demands mismatches the post-earthquake capacities of hospitals, leaving large zones on the periphery significantly underserved. This study demonstrates how plans that leverage hospital-system coordination can address this demand-capacity mismatch, reducing waiting times of critically injured patients by factors larger than two. Hospital systems are critical, especially in providing healthcare services after disasters. Here, the authors revealed that in Lima the spatial distribution of health service demands mismatches the capacities of hospitals after earthquakes, leaving large zones on the periphery significantly underserved.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-18072-w