More than 200 patients had to be evacuated from New York University’s Langone Medical Center last night when backup generators failed during the storm known as Sandy.
Photo by MTAPhotos via Flickr
There are plenty of questions to be answered about how and why this happened and reporters will certainly be on top of that.
But reporters around the country should be looking into disaster planning locally. You might examine local hospitals’ disaster plans. Have they really planned for every contingency? How often do they perform drills to practice and evaluate their evacuation plans? Certainly there are things no one can plan for, but it’s worth evaluating disaster plans and talking to local hospital administrators and officials about what is expected in your area.
We’ve gathered some resources to help get you started. First, two blog posts about the response when a tornado hit a hospital in Joplin, Mo.: Continue reading