Health &Medical Response Paper on Hazard Vulnerability Analysis Report

Based on your readings and experience, comment on the effectiveness of HVAs. Are they too subjective? How would you approach developing an HVA?

Develop an HVA for a hospital in your community. Provide details on the hospital (bed numbers, location, ect.). List the top 5 hazards. Defend your answers

no less than 400 words with APA style

references.

post one

Emergency preparedness in every health organization is crucial since the safety of patients, the staff and facility should be enhanced. For health organizations to identify how to mitigate or respond to hazards, they have to perform a Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA). HVA is an evaluation of human-made and natural disasters that could make hospitals and all stakeholders vulnerable. Hospitals manage to determine the standards as well as potential demands on emergency services and resources that should be considered in the occurrence of a crisis. According to Fares et al., (2014), HVA is effective based on how it assists in the preparation of disaster preventative measures. Depending on the information gathered from the analysis, this allows hospital emergency managers to come up with a plan for emergency management. The HVA systematic evaluation of the probability of the threats, their impact, and calculation of the relative risks in an organization are the major factors that enhance the effectiveness of HVA. These are the factors that guide in the preparation of mitigation and disaster response strategies. However, despite being effective, the ratings in the HVA are highly subjective since risk measures are rated based on people’s preferences. Still, according to Campbell et al., (2011) most HVA tools do not follow standardized regulations on emergency preparedness thus making the tools to vary in many hospitals. Therefore, this also makes the tool very subjective since users are the ones responsible for determining how to collect and evaluate information. Altogether, when developing an HVA, the approach I would use is factoring elements like identification of emergencies that are likely to occur. I would also identify the impact of the established hazards on people, property, and facility. Additionally, I would also consider the frequency of occurrence followed by the level of preparedness and the probability of internal and external responsiveness.

Part Two

Based on the understanding of the importance of the Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA), my community health center, Mercy Douglas Hospital, Philadelphia would benefit having an HVA. Disasters that are likely to affect hospital are fires, floods, hurricanes, winter storms, and terrorism. Such hazards could not only affect operations, but also cause economic loss, loss of lives, and severe injuries on patients and the staffs. Therefore, the HVA developed below would be of great assistance to the hospital.

SEVERITY

EVENT& Impact on people(staff/ patients) Approximately 100 employees Impact on property e.g.Number of Beds-200 Impact on Business Flow Level of preparedness Internal response External response RISK-
Percentage of Relative threat
Location-Philadelphia
Facility- Mercy Douglas Hospital Possibility of occurrence Death/ injury losses and damages Interruption of operations Preplanning Time, availability of resources Community support and agencies SCORE 0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High 0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High 0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High 0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High 0 -N/A 1 -High 2 -Medium 3 -Low 0 -N/A 1 -High 2 -Medium 3 -Low 0 -N/A 1 -High 2 -Medium 3 -Low 0 – 100% Fires 3 3 3 3 2 1 2 90 Floods 2 3 3 3 3 3 2 80 Hurricanes 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 85 Winter storms 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 81 Terrorism 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 92 Average 2.6 2.8 2.6 2.8 2.4 2.2 2.2 85.6
Based on the HVA report, the level of preparedness in the community hospital is relatively low, and the risks of the threats are high. The hospital is located in a rural area; therefore, getting an obvious response is a challenge. Still, the facility has financial problems hence acquiring relevant resources for handling severe hazards like fires, terrorism and hurricanes is also a challenge. Therefore, with this information, the management would identify how to come up with a reasonable disaster management plan.

Reference

Campbell, P., Trockman, S. J., & Walker, A. R. (2011). On linkages: Strengthening hazard vulnerability analysis: Results of recent research in Maine. Public Health Reports, 126(2), 290-293.Fares, S., Femino, M., Sayah, A., Weiner, D. L., Yim, E. S., Douthwright, S., … & Burstein, J. L. (2014). Health care system hazard vulnerability analysis: an assessment of all public hospitals in Abu Dhabi. Disasters, 38(2), 420-433.

post two

According to Campbell, Trockman, & Walker, (2011), the HVA development can demonstrate its effectiveness especially if it can identify the different vulnerabilities and hazards that are in a particular facility. Its effectiveness can be therefore be identified through how it can identify hazards, how they can impact the health facility and provide a sneak of the different ways the risks can be evaluated. Ones it identifies the different risk factors, the factors are taken into consideration during the formulation of the response strategy. With those considerations, one can conclude that the HVA is effective in its intended purpose. On the other hand, its operations can be termed to be very subjective basing on the fact that the ratings of the hazards are done according to the people’s preference and intuition. Variations of the tools that conduct the risk assessments vary from one hospital to another since there are no specific guidelines on how they are used.

In developing a HVA the most suitable approach that I would use is the factoring method. This method involves the evaluation and identification of the most probable vulnerabilities that are likely to occur. After their identification, this would be followed by the assessment of the impact that they may cause in case they happen. Lastly, I would incorporate the different preparedness measures to take on each in the incident they happen.

HVA for Temple University Hospital

One of the hospitals that are found in the community I live is that of Temple University Hospital which can benefit very much from HVA. Examples of vulnerabilities that are likely to affect this health care facility include electrical failure, cyber-attacks, supply shortage, labor actions and floods. In the instance these risks attack the hospital the normal operations are likely to be affected. This, therefore, means that the development of a HVA would be appropriate to address the hazards.

		SEVERITY
EVENT &		Impact on people (staff/ patients) Approximately 350 employees	Impact on property e.g. Number of Beds-722	Impact on BusinessFlow	Level of preparedness	Internal response	External response
Location- Philadelphia Facility- Temple University Hospital	Possibility of occurrence	Death/ injury	losses and damages	Interruption of operations	Preplanning	Time, availability of resources	Community support and agencies
SCORE	0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High	0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High	0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High	0 -N/A 1 -Low 2 -Medium 3 -High	0 -N/A 1 -High 2 -Medium 3 -Low	0 -N/A 1 -High 2 -Medium 3 -Low	0 -N/A 1 -High 2 -Medium 3 -Low
Electrical Failure	3	3	3	3	2	1	2
Cyber-attacks	1	1	1	3	3	3	2
Supply Shortage	2	3	1	3	2	2	2
Floods	3	3	3	3	3	2	3

According to the analysis done by the HVA to the hospital, it is notable that the percentage at which the facility is exposed to risks and hazards is high. This is because of the preparedness strategies that the hospital has been very low. With this information, the management of the hospital should pass this to the university management to add more resources to the hospital to become more prepared to face these hazards.

References

Campbell, P., Trockman, S. J., & Walker, A. R. (2011). Strengthening Hazard Vulnerability Analysis: Results Of Recent Research In Maine. Public Health Reports, 126(2), 290–293.

Fares, S., Femino, M., Sayah, A., Weiner, D. L., Yim, E. S., Douthwright, S., & … Ciottone, G. (2014). Health care system hazard vulnerability analysis: an assessment of all public hospitals in Abu Dhabi. Disasters, 38(2), 420-433. doi:10.1111/disa.12047