Earthquakes and healthcare: the organization of the services of medical attention

• Main Authors: Herberto Arboleya-Casanova, Héctor Marino Zavala-Sánchez, Elena Gabriela Gómez-Peña, Elvira Adriana López-Jacinto, Juan Alberto Flores-Soto, Edna Madai Méndez-Hernández, Gustavo Olaiz-Fernández
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública 2018-03-01
• Series: Salud Pública de México
• Subjects: hospital; prevención; desastres; triage
• Online Access: http://www.saludpublica.mx/index.php/spm/article/view/9328

Health care systems are exposed to several natural disasters that could affect the effectiveness and quality of the services they offer. For this reason it is important to bring out the necessary elements that allow them a suitable organization and infrastructure. In this context some of these elements are drafted as well as a specific set of actions whose inclusion in the hospitals will allow for an optimal answer in case of natural disaster. The use of the triage is analyzed as an instrument that regulates the patient admission to the hospitals. Also, it is shown how the inadequate use of this tool during an emergency situation can follow with casual- ties from injured patients. For this reason, an appropriate set up for these cases is formulated. Last, the staging of a hospital before feasible contingences is proposed and the experience of the events of the 9/19 earthquake disaster retaken for this purpose.