Introduction
September 11, 2001, incidence and the subsequent terrorist attacks that followed demonstrated that states and the USA as a whole require expertise and resources in place to address emergencies. Indeed, terrorism and natural disasters such as hurricanes, storms, floods and droughts are a significant concern in today’s world unlike in the previous centuries. Undeniably, climate change and advancement in technology illustrate no society is immune to attacks and natural disasters. Therefore, it is necessary for every area in the nation to be fully prepared and put measures in place to minimize the adverse consequences of terrorist attacks. The paper argues effective public health emergency preparedness ensures quality delivery of healthcare in different types of emergencies that threaten the health and safety of families, communities and the nation at large.
Public health emergencies encompass not only their health consequences but also their causes and associated events. A situation is defined as an emergency when the health consequences associated with it have the potential to overpower standard public capabilities to address them. As such, public health emergency preparedness describes the ability of public health and health care systems, communities and individuals to avert, defend against, and quickly react to, and recuperate from health emergencies, particularly those whose magnitude, timing or irregularity threatens to devastate routine capabilities (Skyabina, Reedy, Amlot, Jaye, & Riley, 2017). Therefore, disaster preparedness in a healthcare facility is crucial since it reduces risks through mitigating the consequences of a disaster (Ferry, 2017). When healthcare facilities are adequately prepared to attend to the affected population, it facilitates saving lives and reducing both long-term and short-term health consequences of disasters.
The benefits of being prepared for an emergency extends beyond the ability to deliver quality care to encompass the reduction in fear, anxiety and the loses associated with disasters. Indeed, emergency prepared reduces the impact of the disasters, and in some cases, it may facilitate avoidance of the catastrophe ultimately. For instance, flood proofing or securing items that could shake loose during an earthquake reduces the impact of floods and earthquakes respectively. Since the goal of disaster preparedness is to lessen the impact of the disaster on the vulnerable population it is vital in saving lives in addition to property (Ferry, 2017). The importance of preparing for an emergency is grounded on the fact that the disasters are often unexpected leaving little time to prepare adequately. Therefore, adequately preparing for disaster assists in returning the affected population to normalcy as quickly as possible after the disaster strikes.
Considering that disasters occur nearly every year in the USA and the frequency is increasing, preparing hospitals and other healthcare facilities for disaster is currently a matter of national security. While each healthcare facility has a responsibility to invest in emergency preparedness, the government should also take a more central role in these activities (Toner, 2017). Indeed, preparedness activities are expensive and unfortunately do not produce offsetting revenue. Even though the disasters occur daily at a national capacity, the probability of a hazard at the local level is rather low. Indeed, the chance that an individual healthcare facility will face a disaster in the next half a decade is small. Therefore, in the view of maximizing resources at the hospital level, it is hard to make a case for disaster preparedness. However, although the probability might be low, the consequences in the event of a disaster are extraordinary a factor made evident during Hurricane Katrina (Toner, 2017). Considering the adverse consequences of disasters it is paramount for the government, both federal and state to supplement and complement the efforts of individual healthcare facilities.
Conclusion
Disaster often always strike at the least expected times. When it does, it results in devastating consequences from the loss of life to loss of valuable assets. Since the frequency of disasters such as storms, hurricanes, terrorist attacks are currently increasing, adequately preparing for them in healthcare facilities is a matter of national security. Disaster preparedness reduces the impact of the event while in some cases it entirely prevents the emergency. Since the consequences of a disaster depend not only on the severity of the event itself but also the ability to respond effectively, it is vital for the government both federal and state to be involved in public health emergency preparedness.
References
Ferry, A. (2017, October 19). The importance of being prepared before a disaster strikes. Retrieved May 8, 2019, from Galaxy Digital: https://www.galaxydigital.com/blog/disaster-preparedness/
Skyabina, E., Reedy, G., Amlot, R., Jaye, P., & Riley, P. (2017). What is the value of health emergency preparedness exercises? A scoping review study. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 21, 274-283.
Toner, E. (2017). Healthcare Preparedness: Saving lives. Health security, 15(1), 8-11.
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