Hospital emergency response network for mass casualty incidents

The paper presents a simplified model that describes the ability of the Hospital Emergency Department to provide service to all patients after a natural disaster or other emergency. The waiting time is the main response parameter used to measure hospital disaster resilience. Several steps are taken to build a valid analytical framework. First, a generic simulation model of the emergency plan was developed taking into account the hospital resources, emergency rooms, circulation patterns and patient codes. 100 simulations were carried out using as input data the seismic arrival cycle. The results show that the waiting time for yellow codes, when the emergency plan is applied, are reduced by 96%, while for green codes by 75%. The peak waiting time for the yellow codes is about 30 min, for green codes is about 3.5 hours. Then, using the results obtained from the simulations, a metamodel has been developed.It provides the waiting times of patients as function of the seismic input and the number of the available emergency rooms. Finally, the metamodel has been generalized, releasing it from the particular characteristics of the analyzed hospital.