Annals of Disaster Medicine
| ISSN:1684-193X
| Updated July 10, 2002
|
Contents:
June 2002 Vol. 1,
Num. 1 | Comparisons
of Efficiencies in Recognition of Hospital Emergency Incident Command System
by Tabletop drill and Real Exercise |
Kuo-Chih Chen, MD; Chien-Chih Chen, MD; Tzong-Luen Wang, MD,
PhD | | Abstract ---The
objective of this study was to assess the attitudes of hospital staffs toward
the role of tabletop drills in simulation of Hospital Emergency Incident Command
System (HEICS). One-hundred and sixteen hospital staffs (including medical staffs,
logistics, administrative/financial, and planning) attended the HEICS training
at our institute. All participants had experience in field disaster exercise training
before they attended this course. The training course included 4-hour lecture
and 2.5-hour tabletop drills. Ninety-eight of the participants completed a questionnaire
after the tabletop drills. The results revealed that the field operation exercise
could not validate real disasters and not provide definite benefits in improving
disaster training, equipment, supplies, and plans whereas tabletop drills provided
better performance (93.2% vs. 56.2%, P<0.001). The tabletop drills were superior
to the field operation exercises in providing better performance of key executives
(98.9% vs. 70.8%, P<0.001), clear leadership (98.9% vs. 70.8%, P<0.001),
and adequate inter-agency cooperation (98.9% vs. 70.8%, P<0.001). Tabletop
exercise had also the benefits in cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, neither tabletop
drills nor field operation exercise could replace the training of skills such
as rescue and emergency care techniques. In conclusion, tabletop drills are recommended
before large-scale field exercises are undergone in disaster preparedness. (Ann.
Disaster Med 2002;1:29-35) | Key words---Disaster;
HEICS; tabletop drills; field drills |
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