Course overview and objectives

Disasters, natural or human-generated, foreseen or without warning, with intensive or extensive risks, affect people and result to varying health effects and consequences. Survival rates of victims depend on an array of factors especially the surge capacity of hospitals and health care facilities to manage the expanded demand of mass casualties for services and resources, as they manage the emergency incident. Cognizant of the need of hospitals to be prepared to ensure continuous operations during and even after a disaster strikes, and in times their services are needed most, a group of experts in the field of health emergency management in Asia have been working with the ADPC to develop and implement Hospital Emergency Preparedness and Response (HEPR) courses over the years.

The HEPR Course is designed to develop the knowledge and skills of administrative and medical personnel to prepare health care facilities to respond effectively, to ensure continuous operations during or even after disasters, and to recover for better from the impacts of disasters.

The course will enhance the knowledge and skills of participants to equip themselves on emergency planning (for the whole cycle of emergency management for all-hazard concept); reviewing and enhancing their current surge capacity to manage mass casualty-related emergencies; the concepts of hospital emergency management; and on applying knowledge gained on testing and updating emergency management plans and systems.

Course curriculum

The HEPR course is delivered using adult learning techniques with emphasis on interactive lecture discussions, group exercises, workshops, plenary sessions, group brain-storming, sharing of experiences and lessons learned, scenario-based group exercises and simulation exercise or drill.

- Course Overview

- Changing Hazards and Disaster Risk Management

- Establishing a “Hospital Safe from Disaster”

- Hospital Surge Capacity Development

- Hospital Workforce Capacity Development

- Managing Mass Casualty Incidents

- Managing the risks of Mass Casualty Incidents

- Managing Pandemics in a hospital setting

- Hospital Emergency Management Systems

- Risk Communication and Handling affected families

- Hospital Security in Crisis

- Hospital Recovery and Building Resilient Hospital

- Emergency Management and Business Continuity Planning

- Simulation Drill

New Topics

- Hospital Surge Capacity Development

- Hospital Business Continuity Plan Development

- Building Resilient Hospital to Emergencies

- Establishing a 'Hospital Safe from Disasters'

Best Practices

- Hospital Security in Crisis

- Managing Pandemic in a Hospital Setting

- 'Hospital Safe from Disasters'