New York Times story is a “must read” for emergency planners

The New York Times just published a sad yet enlightening account of what happened at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

Many of you will remember that Memorial Medical was isolated and without power for days as employees and patients suffered through terrible conditions in the sweltering heat. Much of the story focused on allegations of clinicians euthanizing patients, with in-depth recollections from many people on duty during those tough days at the hospital.

I’ll let you make your own decisions about the patient deaths there. However, beyond that debate, the story is a “must read” for anyone involved with emergency planning in hospitals, as it pounds away on how many challenges staff members faced during the disaster response. You will think twice about your evacuation plans after reading the article.

Hospitals have plans that call for patient evacuations, all of which probably seems good on paper. But I doubt many facilities have drilled the scenario of moving dozens of patients down flights of stairs in darkness — using exhausted employees who may only have a few hours of sleep each day. That was just one of the plights at Memorial Medical.