During the outbreak of a disease, healthcare facilities must act in a very fast and efficient manner in order to bring the rates of those, who have already got sick, down and prevent the disease from spreading further. Therefore, it is crucial that the standards created for healthcare facilities to stop epidemics should be followed very closely. According to the existing principles of disease outbreaks management, it is imperative that the local healthcare facilities should meet a range of requirements.
Meeting the federal standards of preparedness is the first step towards becoming a legally acknowledged center for disaster management and healthcare. The staff must undergo a range of drills to be considered competent enough to handle major disease outbreaks. Only after the staff has completed the required amount of drills, a hospital can become the refuge in case of epidemics outbreak.
Compliance with the established standards for patient treatment is the next step for a healthcare facility to be considered the service, which addresses the patients’ needs promptly and efficiently. Wayland and Brant explain that the standards for healthcare services in various states and even cities of the same state may differ considerably (Wayland and Brant 234). Nevertheless, the key requirements towards the services remain the same in most hospitals and are based on the JCAHO standards (Wayland and Brant 234).
Finally, the issue of patient confidentiality should be mentioned among the key requirements that a healthcare service must meet in order to be recognized as a disaster management facility. According to the statewide standards, a hospital or any other healthcare service, which provides healthcare facilities to the victims of epidemics, is supposed to maintain patients’ confidentiality and keep the patients’ personal data safe.
Managing a disaster successfully is possible as long as the healthcare facility in question has the required resources, including not only medicine, but also the means of communication. Nevertheless, resources tend to exhaust, and replenishing them is an important part of facilitating the residents of a community with the required disaster management tools. To increase the amount of resources and raise the chances for the population of the area struck by a disaster to survive, a local healthcare facility must ask FEMA for help.
Defined as the organization that enhances emergency management readiness (Abbott 255), FEMA is supposed to define a disaster and declare the necessity for it to be addressed adequately. As soon as the problem has been recognized, the amount of funds to be given for managing the disaster in question is determined by FEMA.
Therefore, any healthcare facility, which provides eservices for the residents of the area affected by a disaster, may request assistance from FEMA and, thus, retrieve the resources required for taking care of the injured and preventing further damage to people and their possession.
It should be noted that the procedure of requesting assistance from FEMA is different for profit and non-profit organizations. While the latter is required to attend the so-called “kick-off” meeting (Abbott 260) in order to discuss the amount of funds to be received, the former are simply not allowed to receive any financial help from the state, as the Stafford Act declares (Abbott 261).
However, after filling in a specific form and sending a request, a profit organization may “become an indirect beneficiary of federal assistance” (Abbott 262) after performing work for compensation.
Works Cited
Abbott, Ernest B. “Availability of Disaster Assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”Terrorism and Disaster Management. Ed. Joanne K. McGlown. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press. 2004. 255–274. Print.
Wayland, William R. Jr. and Marjorie H. Brant. “Legal and Ethical Considerations in Disaster Situations.” Terrorism and Disaster Management. Ed. Joanne K. McGlown. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press. 2004. 231–254. Print.