When it comes to designing a healthcare facility such as hospitals and clinics, ensuring protection against fire comes high on the priority list. Unlike a shopping mall or a residential area, healthcare organisations are filled with sick, disabled or elderly patients, making fire safety a high-pressure component of healthcare organisations.
In a building filled with immuno-compromised people or ones who are incapable of moving without support, it falls on the shoulder of the staff to ensure their safety and evacuation from the hospital. Though most healthcare facilities are designed keeping in mind the relevant codes, fire safety training for hospital staff can make them skilled in handling such situations. As the ones responsible for the safety and security of people inside the hospital, the staff should be trained in easy and efficient fire safety methods. Here are a few measures and approaches that healthcare organisations can utilise for creating an effective fire safety plan:
Detailed Action Plan
A calamity like fire accident leaves no room for thinking. That is why a detailed action plan can help answer all the questions and ensure instant reaction in the right manner. While creating an exhaustive action plan, different departments of the organisation must be looped in to cover all the bases in the best manner possible.
Creating a Fire Safety Team
Every healthcare organisation needs to have a fire safety team that is involved in the planning of a safety and evacuation plan. This is the team that ensures smooth communication during any accident and works to reduce the damage caused by fire. There should be a proper communication channel established between the management and the fire safety team to keep the damage of fire to a minimum.
Evacuation Aids
Evacuating a hospital during a fire can be quite difficult, hence, it falls on the staff to be adept with evacuation aids to help. Whether it’s evacuation mats and sheet, LED strips guiding to exit doors or fire fighting equipment, every hospital should be equipped with evacuation aids.
Mock Drills for Staff
The nursing staff plays a huge role in protecting the patients during such a calamity. By undergoing fire safety programmes and making them participate in mock drills, organisations can create a reliable team for establishing a secure atmosphere. Hospitals can contact Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations or CAHO, which is an eminent body that provides various training programmes such as the fire safety training for hospital staff, hospital training programmes, and healthcare quality certification courses in India.
In a healthcare organisation, fire safety requires excessive vigilance and monitoring by the staff. Ensuring these steps are followed will make the difference between life and death for a huge number of people in case disaster ever strikes out.
