Saturday, April 25, 2009
Evacuation of Elim Care Center
I agree with our text book saying, "You don't have to be involved in a dangerous business to encounter a crisis". A nursing home is not a dangerous business, but is there to help care for older residents of a community. Yet on April 26, 2009 133 residents had to be evacuated due to the rising water in the Red River. Because of good communication with the state officials Elim was prepared to deal with the evacuation adequately. The faculty and staff had a crisis plan and followed it to minimize chaos and confusion. The nursing home had to make sure that families were called and that all the residents had a safe destination along with their medicines, medical records, and a safe way to get there. The Emergency Operation Center along with the Long Term Care Association worked together to get the names of the residents and the types of transportation they needed compiled. They helped find open spots in the state to house the residents that were to be evacuated. Social Services at Elim contacted the families regarding the evacuation. Some loved ones chose to take them home, while others had no choice, but to send them to other facilities. Each resident was issued a triage tag with an identification number. Belongings, medicines, and medical records were packed in a pillow case labeled with each resident’s name. The triage tags and personal belongings bags were separated depending on where the resident was going. Staff volunteered to accompany the residents on their travel to other facilities. This shows how well a crisis situation can be handled. Coordinating for 133 residents takes a lot of time and work by all the faculty and staff to make sure all residents were safe and had their belongings. They used the help of government agencies such as Social Services to help with the crisis in contacting the families. If Elim did not have a crisis plan things could have been much worse and very difficult without the communication of all the agencies and faculty and staff.
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This is a good example of a crisis plan put into action. Like you said this situation could have gotten out of control fast if they wouldn't have had an effective plan that all the staff of Elim knew about. To coordinate 133 residents plus their belongings, medical needs and records is a big task. It sounds like each employee knew what they needed to do and carried out that task. Without the knowledge or practice of this plan, that evacuation could have been total chaos. Also the communication between the staff and the family of the residents had to be clear as well. They needed to know where their loved one was going and how to make sure they arrived to that destination safely.
ReplyDeleteVery good post! This is especially a big topic now after Hurricane Katrina. Many residents died after the nursing home by New Orleans flooded and the owners did nothing to prevent it. That was a very sick example of a crisis communication plan. I am sure after that, every nursing home that was even remotely close to a river or lake engaged in creating a crisis communication plan. These are designed not to just let people know what is going on, they also help protect the lives of people.
ReplyDeletethis is very good showing of crisis planning. the fact the care center was on top of the situation was great as well. this could have turned into another Katrina type problem where the old folks getting sick and injured. having activated the crisis plan for the care center the old folks where able to get evacuate and still receive the care they need. Jim put it the crisis plans are there for protect people and inform people.
ReplyDeleteThis is a bad situation, having to move 133 people. But it sounds like they handled it well. It was good that they had a crisis plan in place and followed it to help keep problems to a minimum. It was good that they contacted the family members so that they knew what was going on. It was also good that government agencies helped in the contacting of the families. The Elim Care Center was well prepared and handled the situation well.
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