All interesting article to read How Hospitals Combat Disaster

How Hospitals Combat Disaster
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.
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.