The Patient Evacuation Toolkit contains numerous resources to support hospitals during three critical phases of patient evacuation: pre-evacuation bed-matching, the transport process, and post-transfer medical record availability.
The toolkit’s resources were collaboratively developed and tested by the Patient Movement Workgroup, which met from February 2015 through December 2016. Co-led by GNYHA and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the workgroup consisted of clinicians, emergency managers, health IT specialists, and transfer center staff from numerous area hospitals, as well as government response partners. Interim versions of the tools were also presented to hospital emergency managers throughout New York State in late 2016 at a series of regional New York State Department of Health meetings. Feedback and comments offered during the meetings were incorporated into the Patient Evacuation Toolkit.
The resources have been designed to support facility-level evacuation planning, as well as planning on the health care system and jurisdictional level. GNYHA is working closely with City and State government response partners to incorporate the resources and processes into tools for both pre-planning and response. All GNYHA member hospitals are encouraged to review the Patient Evacuation Toolkit and consider how its resources complement or improve existing patient evacuation plans and protocols. Hospitals should also consider how the tools can collectively enhance evacuation planning within their broader health care system or health care coalition.