Sociopsychological aspects of evacuating or sheltering health care facilities in the event of a nuclear power plant accident.

Bibliography: p. 18-19

All hospitals and most nursing homes have some kind of emergency or disaster planning. However, research studies indicate that the planning as a whole is neither intensive nor extensive, and numerous problems surface when efforts at implementation in actual crises occur. In general, existing disaster planning by health care facilities is poor, uneven and, in many cases, more the carrying out of a bureaucratic requirement than a serious effort to be prepared for a range of emergencies. In addition, hospital planning tends to be specific disaster agent oriented, with most nursing home emergency planning almost exclusively fire oriented. The consequence of all of this is that conditions are not favorable to the adding of additional disaster planning with respect to a nuclear plant accident. In general, any attempt in response to a nuclear power plant accident to institute in-place sheltering in facilities, will be highly problematical. However, there are ways of improving the disaster managing capabilities of health facilities