An efficient framework of emergency response to facilitate disaster recovery for fire-damaged medical equipment – Case study at a large medical centre after a fire

The major role of disaster recovery management is to rapidly restore the chaotic condition to normal, which includes mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. To reduce secondary damage and loss, the recovery process must be facilitated. Information technologies (including network, web-based, computer, and related software tools) speed up the work process to rapidly deliver disaster information to the related department. In this paper, we share an experience that used a framework of emergency response, including a simple pre-operating process and a web-based information system, to effectively manage and control damaged medical equipment after a fire accident in a hospital operating room. This web-based information system was built in only 2 weeks and was used to manage a large amount of medical equipment affected by the fire. Since then, it effectively prevented the interruption of clinical work at 22 clinical units by supporting the reconstruction activities.

Research highlights
► An experience of disaster recovery management was provided for a large amount of fire-damaged medical equipments in a hospital.
► A simple emergency procedure was built by information technology with low cost and high efficiency.
► An available operating procedure could be established for the emergency response management plan of medical equipments in a hospital.