2019
This is an Entry to the Government Best Practice Recognition Awards
Title
Emergency Preparedness
Organization
Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital
Best practice Focus Area(s)
Process management and improvement
Year Implemented
2011
Summary
Disaster Preparedness, initiated by the Health Emergency Management Bureau (HEMB), is an integrated program of long-term multi-sectoral development with activities whose goals include the strengthening of the overall capacity and capability of an organization to be ready to manage disaster efficiently.
The program consists of Disaster Preparedness Lectures and Earthquake and Fire Drills which were adopted from the HEMB Central Office and cascaded to all employees of the institution, as well as its clients, since 2011 and continuously innovated.
Background and Problem
The main objective of the program is to prepare all personnel and its clients on disaster response and teach them how to mitigate the impact of the situation if it is not preventable, thus decreasing the incidence of mortality within the institution.
Prior to its conceptualization, several calamities occurred which prompted the hospital to rethink its disaster preparedness plan which includes manpower, physical facilities, and the possibility of damage to hospital equipment.
Another proviso is the lack of training of personnel to handle disaster emergencies due to a limited number of trained personnel, limited in-house training, a limited number of resources available during a disaster and the sudden influx of patients in the facility over its normal load but has to continue to maintain its operation to its maximum or more than its capacity.
Solution and Impact
It all started in 2011 when the previous HEMB Coordinator, Dr. Antonio Vasquez, sent the HEMB Staff in lloilo City for the Health Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Training and followed by the Western Visayas Health Emergency Network Plan Training which focused on the inter-agency partnership with regard to disaster preparedness within the area.
The HEMB Staff were compelled to surge the information not just within the institution but to the whole Region VI. They started with the Basic Life Support Training to the employees and later on to the different Local Government Units in Negros Occidental. Standard First Aid Training then followed which gave healthcare providers knowledge on immediate treatment in the community.
A series of Fire Brigade Training was conducted in batches whose members were composed of hospital personnel representing different departments of the institution. This was done with the help of the Bureau of Fire Protection. With the Fire Brigade in place, Earthquake and Fire Drills were conducted annually.
An additional initiative, Disaster Preparedness Lectures were conducted in the Outpatient Department (for clients/patients) and the different units/offices of the hospital.
As a result of the program, an initial of 572 nurses were given lectures (2016) and 77 offices were made aware of the Hospital Disaster Preparedness Plan and approximately six thousand clients/patients are edified with disaster preparedness.
Milestones
In 2016, the HEMB Staff conducted the first Hospital Disaster Preparedness Plan lecture to about 600 nurses and a year after, it was carried out to all offices and subsequently re-oriented every March and July of the year. The hospital personnel’s knowledge of the lectures is put into test during Earthquake and Fire Drills conducted annually. Drills are being evaluated by an external party (Bureau of Fire Protection/Office of the Civil Defense) to have an equitable result. As a result of the program, a readily available Disaster Response Team per area/office was formed in preparation for a sentinel event.