A Meta-Analysis of Hospital Evacuations Overcoming Barriers to Effective Planning

The authors of this study reviewed literature related to hospital evacuations over the past 30 years. The objectives of this study were: 1) to explain why hospital evacuation planning and preparation is important, and 2) to present the results of a thorough review of the literature. The authors share that the success or failure of hospital evacuations generally fall into one or more of the following eight categories: Predisaster Assessment, Logistics, Communications, Community Relationships, Manual Records and Tracking, Resource Management, Special Patient Populations, and Postevacuation Return.