Week 4 Discussion: Disaster Plans
The SNS is a pivotal tool in the event of a disaster.
Using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research SNS. Based on your understanding, respond to the following:
- List and explain the types of items a community hospital will require and seek from the SNS in the event of a disaster.
- List and explain at least two concerns you may have when forced to rely on this facility.
- During the creation of disaster plans, it is common and essential that neighboring hospitals work together. List and explain some of the problems that may arise from a disaster plan, which may be ten years old and involved all of the local community hospitals at the time it was originally designed.
Make sure that you include an introduction and conclusion to your post.
Resources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2016). Strategic National Stockpile. CDC.
Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/phpr/stockpile/
To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Your initial posting should be addressed at 150-300 words. Submit your document to this Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Be sure to cite your sources using APA format.
Respond to your peers throughout the unit. Justify your answers with examples, research, and reasoning. Follow up posts need to be submitted by the end of the week.
Use the following rubric as a guide to complete your discussion responses.
Sample Answer
Week 4 Discussion: Disaster Plans
The Strategic National Stockpile, commonly referred to as SNS, employs more than 250 civil servants, officers of the United States Public Health Service, and contractors, is designed to respond to any public health threat. Among the specialties represented by Stockpile, personnel is the management of emergency, clinical care, a pharmacy, medical operations and logistics, financial management, procurement, public health, quality control, strategic planning, information technology communications, training, and policy. Everyone works as a team to ensure the availability of the appropriate resources reaching at the right time the proper location. The paper focuses on the types of items that a community hospital can require from SNS, concerns that can force one to join the facility, and the old disaster plan problems.
SNS is one part of the infrastructure of federal medical response that supplements medical-based countermeasures needed by territories, states, large metropolitan and tribal nations during public health and related emergencies (CDC, 2016). The Strategic National Stockpile offers items that a community hospital will require and seek in a disaster event. The items that community hospitals can seek from Strategic National Stockpile include; Medicine and medical supplies. In disaster events, there is a need for medicine supply to help the doctors, community health care workers, and volunteers to provide better health care services to the injured victims of the disaster. In this case, the community health care is faced by the disaster, and it does not have enough medicine and medicine supplies, then it can seek help for the medical supplies of whatever quantities from the SNS.
Another item is devices for lifesaving purposes. During an emergency, community hospitals have insufficient devices to save a life and seek help from the Strategic National Stockpile. Personal and protective equipment and items (PPEs) also can be obtained from SNS. When a community hospital needs sufficient personal and protective gear such as ventilators and other supporting gears, it can seek help from SNS.
There are numerous concerns that I may have when forced to rely on the SNS facilities. These concerns may include; how quickly Strategic National Stockpile will respond in the event of an emergency. Whether after having an emergency, the Strategic National Stockpile will respond on time and deliver the medicine and medicine supplies, protective gear, and lifesaving devices. I am not sure whether this facility will respond faster and provide services on time. The quality of services provident by the Strategic National Stockpile is the second concern. Whether the facility will provide quality, reliable and sufficient services during the disaster. Whether the needs will be addressed fully is very important.
There are several problems associated with the disaster plan, and some of them included; lack of staff and public education regarding the disaster risks, failure to strict adherence to the law, poor or ineffective urban planning, and endowment of the tools, infrastructure, and equipment (Brown, 2013). Equipment may not be effective after working for a longer time and hence could lead to project failure. Consequently, staff and the general public need to be educated on the current disaster risks, and thus, when they have no idea of the disaster risks, it becomes a challenge to manage the disaster. It also sometimes becomes difficult to fully adhere to the law as some policies are complicated and complex.
In conclusion, Strategic National Stockpile is responsible for providing support in medicine and medical supplies, personal and support equipment, and other lifesaving devices. Thus, organizations requiring such help can as help from SNS. There is a need to educate employees on the risks of the disasters; there is a need to adhere to law laws, although sometimes unfavorable. Finally, updating the tools and equipment is essential for the disaster plan.
