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  • Title: Hospital-based special needs patient decontamination: lessons from the shower.
    Author: Bulson J, Bulson TC, Vande Guchte KS.
    Journal: Am J Disaster Med; 2010; 5(6):353-60. PubMed ID: 21319553.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVES: A hospital-based decontamination team tested whether it could (1) perform effective technical decontamination while maintaining safety of staff and patients; (2) safely accommodate unique needs in the showers, including guide dogs and motorized wheelchairs; (3) identify needs of special needs populations by patient type, including blindness, hearing loss, and cognitive learning disabilities; (4) outline effective use of federal preparedness funds to support planning and execution of tabletop and mock victim drills; and (5) demonstrate the ability of a community hospital to act as a catalyst for community-wide disaster response improvements. DESIGN: A series of five disaster exercises were used to test hypotheses and to generate quality improvement results. SETTING: Fixed emergency department decontamination facilities. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: A total of 39 hospital-based decontamination team members, 40 other drill staff and 35 mock victims were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Three priority decontamination operations changes resulted from each of the five completed drills. RESULTS: Formulated prioritized list of decontamination team procedural changes to improve patient safety and technical decontamination and to generate a table of best practices to share. CONCLUSIONS: With enhanced training, disaster drills participation of community response agencies and special needs patients, community hospitals can improve safety while accommodating unique patient needs.
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