The increasing population has placed enormous pressures on several utilities. One-quarter of the global population is living in water-stressed areas. More than 113 million people are facing acute hunger. Overpopulation in certain countries has disrupted the entire education and public facility system. However, the whole situation has made the most significant impact on the healthcare industry. In many developing countries, the doctor-to-patient ratio is not even 1:1000 as per WHO guidelines. The entire healthcare sector is struggling at large.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the best yardstick to measure the healthcare system’s proactiveness worldwide. It exposed the vulnerabilities of healthcare and showed us where we were standing. Even the highly developed countries were not able to manage such an emergency requirement. Governments had to create temporary medical facilities. Likewise, the paramedics were severely exhausted. There was a lack of emergency equipment. Numerous corona victims lost their lives because of not getting timely medical attention. It shows that the global healthcare emergency handling framework has certain loopholes. Moreover, some are more visible in the developing world and some even in the developed.
The emergency response system is in dire need of improvements. People rely on emergency departments with almost no window for a retreat. For instance, a little bit of negligence and someone goes through an irreplaceable loss. Therefore, this article stands very important. It shares three ways how the healthcare sector can improve emergency preparedness.
1. A Thorough Analysis of the area of operations
How big should the emergency department be? How many beds and paramedics are needed? What kind of medical equipment and facilities should be there? Which emergency department solutions are crucial for the workers to learn and follow? All these questions are essential while developing the emergency response framework. These factors reflect how efficient the emergency preparedness of any healthcare facility is. The underlying determinants define the success or failure of emergency management. However, the query remains there. How to devise answers for them?
The easiest and most efficient way is performing an area analysis. Area analysis refers to studying the entire area where a medical facility will be operating. It involves considering the demographics of the proximal population and also the presence of nearby medical facilities. It will generate useable data to identify emerging needs. The analysis will inform about the possible emergency requirements. Based on the expected number of emergency visitors, hospitals can determine the size, bed requirement, equipment needs, and other emergency solutions. It will reduce the surprise factor and enhance the overall emergency preparedness.
2. Data Maintenance and Utilization
According to the renowned Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 130 million people visit the emergency department each year in the US. 2.3 million results in admissions to the intensive care unit. Unfortunately, not all are lucky enough, and some die as well. Though the emergency visit mortality rate has radically reduced over the years, there is still a window for improvement. The improvement can only be achieved if proper patient data is maintained and analyzed to the advantage. There is no doubt that any medical interaction in the contemporary world entails extensive data.
Maintaining the data of millions of patients is certainly not an easy task. Modern-day data automation and cloud computing have provided aid to the medical sector as well. Medical facilities can utilize this data to identify the precise patient needs. They can perform trend analysis and see what kind of patients they cater to the most. It will also tell them about their medical condition so they can prepare better for particular medical issues. Data will also tell them about the ones in the ICU and their treatment. Then medical facilities can enhance their emergency department for better initial intensive care.
3. Compliance with International Standards
The executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO) presented a resolution in their 146th session for strengthening healthcare emergency preparedness. The main emphasis was on the compliance of the emergency department with the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). The guidelines span over a broad spectrum of risk reduction, early warnings, and national and global health risk management. The resolution urged the member states and the entire world to attain international standardization in emergency healthcare.
Every medical facility must draft its emergency response framework according to these standards. It is a comprehensive set of ideas needed for maintaining the desired emergency preparedness status. It radically reduces the need for individual attention to minor details. Besides, any medical facility can attain the internationally accepted emergency preparedness level through this compliance. It contains all the details related to essential processes and floor layouts as well. It is imperative to have the proper workflow patterns. Otherwise, the emergency department can get congested.
Conclusion
The recent healthcare crises are enough to teach us a lesson about the significance of emergency preparedness. The world is already moving in a direction where we can never ignore the chances of another disaster like the COVID pandemic. The only thing we can do is to prepare the best we can. Emergency preparedness cushions the impact of medical adversities. It dictates out further steps in response to the challenge. Therefore, the emergency framework should be top-notch. Otherwise, it pulls down the entire medical infrastructure.