Hospitals serve a critical role to the community in the response efforts for a disaster situation. Depending on the type of disaster event, hospitals may need to take very different steps and protocols. Below is information about Los Angeles’ capabilities for disaster response and resources available to hospitals.
Capabilities
In Los Angeles County, there are approximately 27,902 beds total among all licensed hospitals. A list of all licensed hospitals and corresponding information can be found though the LA Almanac website, which can be accessed here.
More specifically, there is a list for the Emergency Departments in Los Angeles, which can be accessed here.
Protocol for Disaster Response:
The Department of Health Services (DHS) for Los Angeles County is in charge of all of the public hospitals and public clinics in Los Angeles County. As described on their website:
“The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) is the second largest municipal health system in the nation. Through an integrated system of 19 health centers and four hospitals – and through partnerships with community-based clinics — DHS annually cares for about 600,000 unique patients, employs over 22,000 staff, and has an annual operating budget of $4.3 billion.”
Department of Health Services / dhs.lacounty.gov
The DHS provides publicly-available guidelines for hospitals in order to assist in developing their protocols for disaster response. The Business Continuity Planning (BCP) formats are for each department of the hospital and address what to do when events happen that impact normal operations. These BCP formats, among many other resources for hospitals for disaster preparedness and response, can be found here.
In addition to the BCP formats, the DHS has contact information for their Disaster Response staff, exercises to practice disaster situations, courses and trainings for medical professionals, and information on emerging infectious diseases.
Mental Health in Disaster Response
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research institution that frequently produces reports across many sectors, including healthcare. In 2007, they produced a technical report on improving hospital response to the mental health aspect of disaster events. The technical report is available on the LA County website, or can be accessed here.
“Health care facilities usually have general disaster plans for dealing with the medical consequences of public health emergencies. However, most of their disaster plans do not address the psychological consequences of such events. These training manuals are designed to fill the gap by providing curricula that can be used to train hospital and clinic staff and department of mental health staff who would be deployed to hospitals and clinics about how to prepare for and respond to the psychological consequences of large-scale disasters.”
RAND Corporation / rand.org