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Emergency Department Ceiling Collapse: Response to an Internal Emergency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Dennis G. Barten ,
Matthijs T. W. Veltmeijer  and
Nathalie A. L. R. Peters
Dennis G. Barten*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, VieCuri Medical Center, Venlo, the Netherlands
Matthijs T. W. Veltmeijer
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, VieCuri Medical Center, Venlo, the Netherlands
Nathalie A. L. R. Peters
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, VieCuri Medical Center, Venlo, the Netherlands
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Dennis G. Barten, Department of Emergency Medicine, VieCuri Medical Center, P.O. Box 1926, 5900 BX Venlo, The Netherlands (e-mail: [email protected]).
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Abstract

Hospital disaster resilience is often conceived as the ability to respond to external disasters. However, internal disasters appear to be more common events in hospitals than external events. This report describes the aftermath of a ceiling collapse in the emergency department of VieCuri Medical Center in Venlo, the Netherlands, on May 18, 2017. By designating the acute medical unit as a temporary emergency department, standard emergency care could be resumed within 8 hours. This unique approach might be transferrable to other hospitals in the developed world. In general, it is vital that hospital disaster plans focus on both external and internal disasters, including specific scenarios that disrupt vital hospital departments such as the emergency department. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:829–830)

Keywords

emergency servicehospitaldisaster medicinedisaster planninghealth facility administrationstructure collapse
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , August 2019 , pp. 829 - 830
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 

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References

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