Urgent Need for Improved Disaster Planning in Hospices
Urgent Need for Improved Disaster Planning in Hospices
Many hospices are unprepared to handle large-scale disasters or future pandemics, despite growing compliance requirements. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed significant gaps in preparedness, including limited disaster planning, workforce shortages, and inadequate supplies like PPE and medications. Hospices also faced challenges such as restricted access to patients in facilities, delayed referrals, and disrupted care transitions.
Despite these challenges, hospices can play a crucial role in disaster response. They can act as liaisons between patients and families during visitation restrictions, provide grief and bereavement support, assist with public health efforts, and help prevent burnout among other clinicians. Strengthening disaster preparedness in hospices is vital to ensuring continuity of care and supporting communities during crises.
“Overall hospice and end of life care was given too little consideration and disaster management policies and actions have been enacted by the larger response community. They were at best insufficiently supportive and at worst partially obstructive to provision of hospice care in disasters.”
The key to successfully mitigating any emergency is preparedness. CHUG members have access to a comprehensive suite of educational workshops that utilize real-life case studies to teach effective responses to emergency situations. This training can be lifesaving.
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