Post-event recovery activities and recovery planning in the health sector
Post-event recovery activities and recovery planning in the health sector, which include hospital-based care, pre-hospital resources as well as out of the hospital care systems ideally should focus on a continuum of community requirements, both short term recovery need and long-term health community needs. According to the Institute of Medicine (US). Committee on Post-Disaster Recovery of a Community’s Public Health, Medical, and Social Services (2015), if developed well, these communities’ recovery plans can not only help a swift recovery from a disaster but also address chronic community concerns such as access to healthcare services. In the early recovery stages, the healthcare recovery plan should be initiated by the assessment of residual health sector capacities, the limitations for long term planning, acknowledgment of the current and planned changes as well as the Financing system (Hansen et al., 2017).
Valley City Regional Hospital lacks a healthy pre-made disaster plan and facilities in place since no one knows how to act in case of a disaster as exposed by the catastrophic derailment of the oil tanker train. The hospital staff struggled to manage the situation with over two hundred hospitalized casualties in a 105-bed understaffed hospital which its capacity was already overwhelmed. Therefore, as candid from the interviews, there is a need for coordinated teamwork and development of a disaster management plan for Valley City Regional Hospital. Consequently, tasked with the development of the plan, I used a MAP-IT framework to come up with a plan that will aid disaster management at Valley City Regional Hospital.
Mobilize
Valley City Regional Hospital should form a health disaster recovery committee by partnering with the health communities such as registered nurses and physicians who will contribute to the process. The hospital should also facilitate community input through events, meetings, and advisory groups. Present and develop training and educational programs: sponsor fundraising and policy initiatives. Facilitate technical help in evaluation or planning.
Assess
The hospital should determine priority health issues through the formed health disaster recovery committee by evaluating heath data, look for experts’ opinions, invite community comments, and conduct an opinion survey of the residents. It should use a consensus method to resize the range of its goals to at least seven priority health areas and four disease risk factors.
Plan
This plan makes a connection with achieving health people 2020 underlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011). The goal of the plan is to reduce the annual number of new disaster cases within the region. Target at least nine new cases out of a thousand population aged between eighteen and sixty-five years old. Have a baseline of ten new cases per thousand population aged between eighteen and sixty-five.
Implement
Valley City Regional Hospital will establish a program responsible for keeping disaster recovery plans on track with support and training. The hospital will do an assessment and then implement the action plan.
Track
The oversight team will check the standardization of data collected, analysis, and structure of the plan to examine its validity and reliability. Based on the analysis, the team will categorize each objective and sub-objective as either likely to be achieved, uncertain, or unlikely to be achieved. Moreover, the team will also analyze the areas that need modification to achieve the most desirable features.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Developing an effective evaluation plan: Setting the course for practical program evaluation. Atlanta: CDC.
Hansen, S., Kanning, M., Lauer, R., Steinacker, J. M., & Schlicht, W. (2017). MAP-IT: a practical tool for planning complex behavior modification interventions. Health promotion practice, 18(5), 696-705.
Institute of Medicine (US). Committee on Post-Disaster Recovery of a Community’s Public Health, Medical, and Social Services. (2015). Healthy, resilient, and sustainable communities after disasters: strategies, opportunities, and planning for recovery. National Academies Press.