One response that would occur as a result of a fire, would include finding the source, figuring out how the fire started in the first place and putting in steps to insure it doesn’t happen again. For example carrying out a risk assessment if required to figure out what was in place originally how that is working now, and how it needs to be adjusted or added to to ensure it is even safer, to reduce and/or eliminate the hazard where possible. This can take place with the aid of the fire brigade who may access the situation and offer solutions to further eliminate risks of a second fire.
A second emergency that could occur in a hospital setting could include exposure to infections, because although there may be a plan of action previously prepared, it is still an hazard that is serious and in many cases unexpected. It is also an emergency that could take place on various occasions. There are many priorities that should be followed in the case of an infections exposure, including first and foremost protecting all individuals within the building especially those service users that are closest to the area in which the infection spread initially and those who may be at a higher risk of being affected by the infections, i.e. those with lower immune systems and ensuring they are all safe from harm. The second priority in the case of an infection outbreak, would be to locate the source of the infection in order to minimize or eliminate the problem completely. This would be done by assessing the seriousness of the situation, and then implementing the action that is required to amend the problem. If required this would mean getting help to fix the situation from an external source that is specialised for these circumstances. Also what would be done would be to cut off the section of the hospital with the highest hazard to minimize the risks whilst others are working on eliminating the problem, this includes getting patients moved to a safer location for the time being as well as ensuring all medical professionals keep an appropriate distance from the area, and only designated persons enter the parameter. The third and last priority would include reviewing the situation to ensure that the problem has been eliminated and the infection within the hospital is no longer a threat to the service users within the building. This is important because the health and safety of the service users is the utmost priority. Therefore before patients can be moved back their original wards, it is important to thoroughly check that it is safe to do so with the help of outside services.
One response that would occur after the infectious exposure would be to do a detailed report by looking into what caused the outbreak, how it spread and where it originated from. This is all to help develop the previously put in place solutions in order to make them even more efficient, effective and personalized to this scenario. This would help prevent the likelihood of this emergency from occurring again in the future. If required this would be done with the help of an inspection of the building and a risk assessment to see what could have caused it, and what isn’t being done properly to prevent such a thing from happening in the first place. One method of informing individuals on how to help prevent the spread of infections is to put up posters informing for example how to correctly wash your hands in order to significantly reduce the amount of bacteria being spread and reducing the risk of cross infections.
An incident can be defined as an event or occurrence as a result of something. There are several incidents that could occur in a hospital setting. Some examples of incidents include the following, abduction of a service user; Abuse in a health or social care setting; A missing child; Spread of infection. I will be talking about two of these incidents in more detail.
One incident that could take place in a hospital setting could include the case of suspected or actual abuse. If this was to occur in a health care setting such as a hospital, the first and main priority would be to comfort and assure the individual in question, and to get a medical professional to tend to any injuries. Also it would be important to get as much information from the service user as possible at this stage because this is also a main priority to get as much accurate information from the victim, which needs to be done as soon as they discover the abuse has taken place, as this will allow the investigation into the incident be as effective as possible. This is because it allows to talk about the incident whilst it is still most recent and fresh in their mind. The second most important priority will be to look for the assailant, i.e the person(s) who are responsible who the incident. This is important whether the individual is a medical professional who works in the hospital, another service user who is admitted in the same hospital or any other persons that has in some way been able to access the victim in such a way without getting caught, or bringing attention to themselves or the victim sooner. The third and last most important priority that should be done should a service user in a hospital setting be abused, should be to contact and/or report the incident depending on how serious the abuse incident is, and who the offender is. For example, should the victim be a hospital patient who is a child, found to be getting abused by a nurse that is suppose to be doing her job; looking after the patient and instead is found to be mistreating the patient, there are many people that should be contacted. Firstly, the parents/guardian should be contacted as it is a minor, secondly higher authorities should also be contacted in this case the police and a report should be filed explaining the incident in order to inform a higher medical authority.
One response that would occur from the result of abuse in a hospital, would include maintaining the dignity and respect of the victim/service user regardless of the seriousness of the incident. While it is important to make helping the service user your main priority, it is important to make sure the dignity of the service user in any way possible, an example of this would include if the victim of abuse is a child it is important to communicate with them in a professional manner in a way which allows you to reassure them and give them confidence. This is to help the individual and those trying to help the victim. If the service user’s confidence is restored and is respected they may be more likely to want to help give information and find the individual at fault. In serious cases of abuse the victim may be too afraid to testify or give the name of the person, so reassuring and helping the service at all times in essential.
Another incident that can occur in a health and social care setting such as a hospital is a service user such as a child going missing. This type of incident can lead to many different priorities to occur simultaneously, these can include the first and main priority which would be to check and ensure all other individuals that are meant to be there, are and anyone who isn’t suppose to be there, to be questioned and asked for their reason to be in the hospital. This is to ensure that the safety of all other patients within the hospital is to the maximum level, before they begin a report and start searching for the missing individual. Also it is important to comfort all other service users, as it would be a traumatic experience just as much for them as the actual individual gone missing. The second priority would be to find the victim and ensure they are in no harm, physical, emotional or otherwise, and if so do whatever is needed to make the service user feel as comfortable as possible. This is so that the service user later feels comfortable enough to talk about their experience and share information that the higher authority may need in regards to the incident. Also for this step it would be required to have enough staff to be divided into two, enough to care for the service users already within the hospital so that services do not get disrupted whilst the search is on-going, whilst also having enough staff to go out and search within the hospital and in the surrounding areas, if there is not enough staff available, the police would be called in to provide help. The third and last priority would be to figure out how the individual managed to go missing to begin with, and what security breaches occurred when this took place.
One response that would occur from this would be to figure out what could be done to prevent this from happening again in the future. This would be done by having a follow-up review of the incident, including looking into what security measures were in place originally and what should be implemented to improve this even further. Also it would be important to assess how quick and effective the response to the incident was, i.e. how long it took for the medical professionals to realise there was a patient missing, how long it took to find the service user and how quickly they were able to go through the three priorities. This would be to ensure that all medical professionals know and are thoroughly informed of the procedure for this incident. This would then be evaluated to see how well everything was done, and what could be improved should any possible future incidents similar to this one arise.