How Hospitals Combat Disaster
>> Oct 16, 2018
When terrible disasters affect
populous urban areas, injuries and unsafe home conditions leave most people
with only one place to turn: their local hospital. Hospitals already provide an
incredible community service, providing professional healthcare to their
communities and supporting a higher quality of life. When disaster strikes, be
it a power outage, flood, fire, or natural disaster like a hurricane, hospitals
act as safe havens for individuals who cannot escape and cannot go back to
their place of residence. In at-risk locations like Fort Lauderdale, which has
an annual hurricane season and was affected by both hurricane Katrina and
hurricane Wilma, the construction
of a new hospital requires a set
of special codes and careful attention so as to make sure that, in troubling
times, the building and its staff may offer relief and refuge.
 |
| image:pixabay.com/en/architecture-buildings-hospital-931283 |
Specific
Facilities to Combat Disaster
In Fort Lauderdale, which covers most
of Broward County and has over six million residents, the resident and tourist
population must deal with regular tropical storms, which can cause power
outages and potentially turn into hurricanes. The city is a high-risk area, and
in times of disaster and related injury, residents and tourists alike may look
to the nearest hospital for support. In order to cope with this kind of
environment, hospitals in Fort Lauderdale must follow specific codes that call
for unique functions and capacities that one would not generally consider
necessary for a hospital to have. Facilities like holding areas for mass
amounts of people and a command room to coordinate relief are a must. They need
to be able to store extra food, trauma supplies and communication equipment.
All of these things need to be kept somewhere accessible and safe from the
effects of disasters. In order to achieve this, hospitals must be constructed
as solidly inside and out, and they must have easily understandable and
navigable floor plans.
How
Hospital Design Combats Disaster
Additionally, hospitals have to be
able to withstand the disaster itself so that individuals seeking refuge are
not at risk while inside. When constructing a hospital, the backup generator
location, flood resistance, and facility window glazing must all be considered
as part of a holistic approach to increasing the building resilience against
disaster. In Fort Lauderdale, where flooding may affect residence, second floor
generators capable of running for multiple days are very useful basic measures.
More resilient roofing that has been subjected to pull tests to confirm its
strength are also necessary, especially when faced with high winds. While
retrofitting older hospitals certainly makes them more resilient, constructing
new hospitals that incorporate these features in their design gives the best
result, and in Fort Lauderdale, new hospitals with such capacities will be
highly valuable to their communities.
At the end of the day, hospitals are
there to provide their communities with invaluable healthcare service. For
those living in areas that face disasters, especially seasonally like in Fort
Lauderdale, it should be comforting to know that their hospitals are just as
capable of providing sufficient relief during hard times so that everyone who
needs it will be given refuge and safety.
Read more...
Share this article :
