A Summary Of Suggestions For NICU Evacuation

By Gregory Ward


There have been frequent disasters in the past years that have forced infirmaries to evacuate their patients to safer facilities. The intensive care unit has vulnerable patients that ought to be managed with the utmost care and with a high level of expertise. One of the most challenging processes during disasters is NICU evacuation. Here, patients are vulnerable and must be handled by trained personnel to prevent further tragedies. Hence, the staffs in this unit must receive proper training with the knowledge to handle the equipment. This article has given a synopsis of different proposals during the evacuation period.

Forming agreements with the hospitals and transport agencies around is vital. This means that there should be an agreement established between the hospital and the other facilities in the local to ensure that they can receive the critically injured or ill patients. Another deal should be between the transport agencies and the hospital where the agencies agree to transport the ill patients either on the ground or on air.

Infirmaries need to have sufficient machines or equipment for removing the patients. They should also train their staffs on disaster awareness to ensure the team can take measurable procedures to keep patients safe during this complex process. A coordination leader must also be available on the ground for categorization of patients and communication with the receiving ends on the procedures.

Governing bodies should be included during this process. Their primary duty will be providing proper timing to undertake this process and give orders on the evacuation. As such, infirmaries must establish appropriate channels of communication. The mechanism must be reliable to make sure that the board of administration is contacted on time and orders are given promptly. This way, there will be no distractions on the ground. The authority is there to give orders on the best time for transporting the NICU patients before the overall population.

When it comes to patients who have respiratory difficulties, there is a need for surge ventilators that can run on low oxygen and have a battery backup. The equipment is necessary to ensure patients with such problems can breathe during transportation and when in the shelter. The ventilators must be convenient and portable to ensure the safety of patients and the staff.

In case there is ample time for the procedure, the most critical patients should be moved first followed by the less critically ill patients. Apart from making it easy for this process, receiving hospitals can provide a location so that the patients can continue receiving the same care. It is easy to cluster these patients based on their medical needs and disease resources.

It is recommended to conduct preparations of a patient before they are transported. This means that the condition of a person must be noted before transportation so that any changes that may come later are easily recognized and addressed. Preparations can include initial stabilization, diagnostic procedures, and methods of damage control, among others.

In case the facility is not able to send an electronic copy of the medical details of a patient, there ought to be a paper record. The paper must include the identification of a patient and their list of problems. This is important for the receiving facility to know how to continue caring for the patient.




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