Hospital Rapid Response Systems and Disasters

Disasters may occur within the hospital, as well as outside the hospital. In both situations, there is a rapid and unexpected rise in patients requiring emergent care. This will create a mismatch between patient needs and resources available. A plan is required for all hospitals to manage and ameliorate the mismatch to enable safe and expeditious patient care. This is the crux of a rapid response system, and the hospital disaster plan is part of that system. In this chapter, we describe disaster basics as well as requirements for a safe plan. We further elucidate how the disaster plan and response are part of the rapid response system.