HOSPITAL ENGINEERS
Engineering
Biomedical, Chemical, Mechanical, Computer, Electrical, Materials, Environmental, Industrial, Information, Civil, Software, Systems
Healthcare Engineering
Healthcare/Medical sectors of Engineering,
Engineering/Technology sectors of Healthcare Sciences
Safety Engineering
Hospital Engineer in Disaster Management
Figure 2. Healthcare engineering and disaster management.
Although a hospital engineer is registered by a public association, he/she… should play all the more important roles in the mitigation of natural disasters as well as their management
in the hospital could see the data on power consumption. Above all, information-sharing on power shortage is most important. Again, the HE created the basic data for this approach (see Fig 1).
In the last earthquake, we formed a
working group on energy saving. At the first meeting, a report on the number and types of outlets and medical equipment was requested from each department. This approach also served to make all healthcare staff aware of where the emergency outlets were located in the hospital. At the second meeting, the collaboration of medical staff was confirmed.
Based on the answers to the
questionnaire, we stratified the measures depending on the level of requirement (see Table 4). At the hospital staff meeting we shared information on energy saving among the medical staff. The responses to the questionnaire were presented, and a fundamental policy on energy saving was confirmed. Consequently, this had a favourable impact on the financial balance of the hospital. We could save 13.7 per cent of expenditure for electricity, 8.6 per cent for water and even 18 per cent for gas. In total, we were able to save more than $528,000 in the year of the earthquake. Looking at the data on power consumption in the hospital, we found that it was markedly suppressed after the earthquake.
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Table 3. Key issues for blackout and energy saving. Infrastructure of hospital •Performance of in-house generators •Performance of interruptible batteries •Usability of medical gases during blackout •Air conditioning and water supply •Hospital information system Medical equipment •Types of outlets to which medical equipment is connected •Equipped with battery? (performance of battery, if any) •Information-sharing in power shortage •Between medical team and administrative personnel
IFHE DIGEST 2022
Discussion Our experience revealed that natural disasters have a wide range of impacts on hospital utilities as well as patients and healthcare staff. Direct impact includes human injury and damage of buildings. Our hospital is located at approximately 375 kilometres from the epicentre of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, in the northern part of the country. Because of the location, direct damage
to property was limited in our hospital. Therefore, our experience in a moderately remote area is likely to have been different from those in areas close to the epicentre. On the other hand, the indirect impact was associated with universal issues.
These included damage to utilities such as stopping electricity and water supply, which led to long-term disruption to healthcare services.1 The overall impact of the disaster
appeared to cause more serious problems to utilities than to medical devices and instruments. Patient safety involves various types of risk related to hospital facilities. These may all occur at any time, in particular during a disaster. A lot of practices are needed to mitigate disasters in hospitals, and special knowledge and detailed information on hospital facilities and technology are required. In all these approaches, the HE is an important staff member in clinical settings because he/she is familiar with the hospital facilities related to healthcare technology2 (see Fig 2). According to the regulations, the Japanese clinical engineer (CE) manages life-support medical equipment, such as ventilators, hemodialysis equipment, heart-lung machines, pacemakers and defibrillators. One of the most important considerations is that all these require electricity. CEs care for patients through
Healthcare Sciences
Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health
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