Disasters are increasingly becoming common and disaster preparedness is the need of the hour. The hospitals serve as the main hub in any society affected by disasters, and also hospitals to are affected during times of disasters if not equipped to deal with the same appropriately. Hence, to provide patient care and serve as effective centres for relief and recovery operations, hospitals must be prepared to deal with such eventualities. Thus, keeping in mind the need of the hour, this certificate course on disaster preparedness in hospitals was designed. The Department of Community Medicine organized the Certificate course on “Disaster preparedness in hospitals” with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as knowledge partners and the support of IAPSM and IMA Puducherry Chapters. The course was envisioned to sensitize the participants to the process of implementing the principles of Disaster Preparedness in their institutions.
The expected outcomes from the course were to enable participants to:
- Prepare an outline of a hospital disaster plan
- Conduct a vulnerability assessment of a hospital
- Develop a disaster management plan for a hospital
- Provide a disaster response
Course structure:
The course was structured as 3 days of classroom learning (24 hours) along with 16 hours of self-directed learning for the creation of a disaster preparedness plan as per exercises given and assignments completion. The course was organized into learning modules with a total workload of 2 credit points from the UGC and 6 credit hours from the TNMC for participants. Both the assignments and preparation of disaster plans as per exercises corresponded to 16 hours of self-directed learning. There were a total of 36 registrations totally; 28 attendees on the first day, 33 attendees on the second day, and 31 attendees on the 3rd day. Participants from 5 other institutes attended whereas the rest were internal candidates from various departments of MGMCRI, SBV, namely nursing, patient care, ER physicians and staff etc. who got benefited from a series of lectures, discussion and exercises by resource persons from the ADPC and Dept of Community Medicine, MGMCRI.
Summary of events:
The course was conducted in the George Miller Hall, MEU, I floor from November 22-24, 2019.
Day 1 (22/11/2019):
The session started at 8.30 am with the registration of participants, followed by the introduction of all participants coordinated by Mr Sumedh and Dr Chetan. Dr Chetan oriented the participants with instructions about the course and its modules. The orientation session was followed by the administration of Pre- Test by Dr Jyothi. Disaster risk management and DM structure in India were subsequent sessions by Mr Sumedh. The other sessions for the day were Disaster Epidemiology and Pattern of Injury by Dr Jayaramachandran, Structural component & Non-Structural Components by Mr Sumedh Patil, Role of Private Medical Institutions – Pre, During & Post Disaster Sh. Rajan Baalu from the NDRF, Exercise 1: Structural Components Evaluation by Dr Jayaramachandran, Functional Collapse of Hospital by Dr Jayaramachandran, Epidemics and Emerging Infections Dr Chetan N. Patel, Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) by Dr Jyothi V, Mass Gathering Medical Care by Dr Jyothi V, Principles of Disasters Medicine by Dr Jayaramachandran followed by Review / Day evaluation and instructors meeting.
Day 2 (12/10/2019):
The second day started with a recap of the previous day’s activities by Dr Amrit Mishra, tutor, Department of Community Medicine, MGMCRI. Pre-Hospital Care, triage, exercise on Triage by Dr Chetan N. Patel, Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) by Mr Sumedh Patil, Exercise 3: HICS Exercise by Mr Sumedh Patil, Hospital Preparedness Planning by Dr Jayaramachandran S, Hospital Internal Disaster Mr Sumedh Patil, Exercise 4: Hospital Internal Disaster by Dr Jyothi, Onsite –Medical Care by Dr Chetan N. Patel and exercise on MCI Management by Dr Chetan N. Patel and Triage Video Dr Jyothi were the sessions and exercises for day 2. The day ended with review and day evaluation and instructors meeting.
Day 3 (13/10/2019):
The recap of the second day’s session was done by Dr Gratia Lamlee Kamei, MPH scholar from JIPMER. The day began with a review by Rapporteurs by Dr Jyothi V, Disaster Risk Communication by Dr Jayaramachandran S, Mass Fatality Management by Mr Sumedh Patil, Return to Normal by Dr Chetan N. Patel, Post Test was conducted by Dr Jyothi V There was a 4 Group presentation on the assignments moderated by Dr Chetan N. Patel, Mr Sumedh and Dr Jyothi.V. The programme concluded with the closing ceremony and distribution of certificates to the participants in the presence of representatives from the IAPSM and IMA.