Three decades of hospital evacuations in the Netherlands
A scoping review
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22028545 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dennis G Barten (0000-0002-7185-9491, VieCuri Medisch Centrum), Marjolein H M Fijten (VieCuri Medisch Centrum), Menno I Gaakeer (0000-0003-4973-004X, Admiraal De Ruyter Ziekenhuis), Vincent W Klokman (0000-0002-2566-1230, VieCuri Medisch Centrum), Luc Mortelmans (0000-0002-8142-5283, Ziekenhuisnetwerk Antwerpen Stuivenberg), Frits van Osch (0000-0003-4329-2560, Maastricht University, corresponding author), Nathalie A L R Peters (VieCuri Medisch Centrum), Jaap J J Wijnands (GGD Limburg-Noord), Edward Tan (0000-0002-9978-249X, Radboud University Nijmegen), Edward C T H Tan, Arjen Boin (0000-0002-0923-1484, Leiden University) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 81 |
| Pages | 103252 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2212-4209 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103252 |
| OpenAlex | W4292641214 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 14 |
Hospitals are expected to provide their essential services under all circumstances, including disasters and crisis situations. However, crises and disasters may disrupt essential hospital functions, and necessitate evacuation of the facility. Data on the prevalence and causes of hospital evacuations is limited, whilst realistic evacuation planning will make hospitals more resilient. A systematic scoping review of news articles retrieved from the LexisNexis database, Google, Google News, PubMed and EMBASE between 1990 and 2020. All articles mentioning a hospital evacuation in the Netherlands were analyzed. A total of 67 hospital evacuations were identified in a 30-year time period. The most common primary incidents were internal fire (33%), technological failure (21%) and hazardous materials (12%). Cascading events transpired in 37% of all events. As a result, internal fire (34%), internal power failure (19%) and hazardous materials (16%) were the most important reasons to evacuate a medical facility. The number of evacuees ranged from 1 to 339 patients (median 10.5, interquartile range 36), and there were 13 (19%) complete hospital evacuations. The frequency of hospital evacuations increased over time, with a more diverse etiology during later years. Hospital evacuations do occur, and hospitals are vulnerable to both internal and external hazards. Internal fire, internal power failure, hazardous materials and flooding incidents were the most important reasons to (partly) evacuate a hospital. Our findings suggest that situational evacuation guidelines are necessary, and that evacuation preparedness will benefit if the most relevant evacuation scenarios are planned for and practiced
Environmental health · Hazardous waste · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Preparedness · Disaster Response and Management · Emergency and Acute Care Studies · Engineering · Medicine · Trauma and Emergency Care Studies
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |