A new study published in the American Medical Association’s Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal finds that consistent, evidence-based performance measurements are needed to accurately evaluate hospitals’ ability to manage patient care during a disaster. The study will be published in the journal’s December issue.
Healthcare institutions have invested considerable resources in emergency management preparedness, but because major disasters are rare, they continue to be challenged in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of their emergency programs. Evidence-based preparedness policies are needed that model current healthcare quality improvement programs. One way to create such models is to evaluate hospital procedures during times that approach disaster levels. Traditional hospital quality measures, like wait times and missed diagnoses, can be applied, and the results can be compared to peer hospitals to determine strengths and weaknesses.
“It is important that performance standards be established for times of disaster to ensure uniformity across institutions, systems, and regions,” said Dr. Lazar. “Ultimately, we must advance achievable recommendations in performance measurement to guide resource allocation during emergencies. Hospital emergency management strategies are essential to our nation’s preparedness.” Read abstract.
