INFORMING EMERGENCY RESPONSE OF HOSPITAL SYSTEMS AFTER MODERATE AND LARGE EARTHQUAKES IN LIMA, PERU

Ceferino L.; Mitrani-Reiser J.; Kiremdijian A.; Deierlein G.; Bambarén C. · World Conference on Earthquake Engineering proceedings (2021)

Resumen

Hospital systems are an important core of earthquake emergency response because these systems must provide timely treatment to people affected by the disaster. Earthquakes, however, can affect the hospitals’ ability to function due to widespread damage to the hospital buildings and their supporting infrastructure. Additionally, earthquakes increase the demand for healthcare services as damaged urban infrastructure can cause injuries of high severity to people. The potential decrease in capacity and surge in demand for healthcare services can create a significant treatment shortfall throughout a city and subsequently increase the number of deaths during an earthquake aftermath. Thus, cities must develop proper preparedness and emergency plans to be able to respond to earthquakes with effective protocols for hospital systems. To address this problem, we use an earthquake emergency response model to design effective protocols for patient transfers and allocation of emergency response teams (EMTs) with field operating rooms for three earthquake scenarios in Lima, Peru. The model quantifies multi-severity earthquake casualties and captures reductions in the treatment capacity of hospitals. Earthquake magnitudes of 7.0, 8.0, and 8.8 are chosen to represent a range from moderate to large earthquakes in the central subduction zone of Peru. This paper describes the differences and similarities in deploying effective emergency plans for moderate and large earthquakes, indicating the critical regions that will need additional resources and the key roads to transfer patients. This study demonstrates that with proper planning, hospital systems can treat more injured people in a timely manner and with more efficient use of limited resources. © The 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering.

Instituciones: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia