An Overview of the Emergency Evacuation of Hospitals in Disasters

Natural and man-made disasters are severe threats to the life, development, and evolution of human societies. Therefore, providing an effective and appropriate response to reduce the mortality rate, injuries, and disabilities and their consequences is necessary. This would be possible through comprehensive planning based on the continuous risk assessment results, and existing and future capacities. Considering that some incidents require the emergency evacuation of patients from hospital wards, the current study was conducted with the aim of reviewing the emergency evacuation of hospitals in these situations.

This study is a narrative review of literature in which data were extracted from Scopus, PubMed, SID, Science Direct, Magiran and IranMedex databases, and Google Scholar search engine. The keywords “Disaster”, “Hospital”, “Guideline” and “Evacuation “were used in the period from 2000 to 2019 in Persian and English languages.

Events such as earthquakes and man-made hazards such as biological, radiological, nuclear, chemical, and explosive events require the emergency evacuation of patients from hospital wards. Hospitals need instructions on how to perform the emergency evacuation of patients from the wards correctly. Having a response preparedness plan and evacuation drill is critical for healthcare facilities. Discussion and

In planning for unexpected events, the hospital should anticipate the most catastrophic consequences and expand its preparedness strategies in this field. The evacuation program is one of the programs that are highly needed by hospitals and should be included in the hospital’s disaster preparedness.