Decision-making is one of the critical functions of organizational leaders and managers. They have to make various decisions that guide activities at their respective departments or organizations to ensure smooth operations. However, there are several factors to consider before making any decisions. Some of these factors include morals and ethical considerations. During disaster management, the decisions must be made within the shortest time possible, and they need to be morally and ethically right. In the Dyer Indiana hospital case study, patients and hospital staff had to be evacuated due to the rising water levels. There were some factors to consider during the process because it was disaster management and emergency response, and it would quick, moral, and ethical decision-making.
The first decision to make is whether to evacuate the patients and staff or not. As the hospital leader, the safety of the hospital residents should be my number one priority (Pourvakhshoori, Norouzi, Ahmadi, Hosseini, & Khankeh, 2017). This means that before deciding on whether to evacuate or not, the leadership will need to consider the option that will ensure safety or minimized risks. Evacuating, many people will involve getting sufficient funds, acquiring a safe and spacious destination, and employing enough evacuation personnel. Another option would be to manage the water levels to reduce the impacts it would have on the hospital occupants (Adini et al., 2016). In this case, the decision to evacuate depends on whether the safety and costs of the process.
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Secondly, there is a large number of people to evacuate, and seventy of them have psychological issues. The seventy patients are dependent, and their safety is an issue here (Rey-Berrios, 2016). If not handled well, they risk some of them might develop symptoms complications which include suicidal behaviors. The charts also indicate that there is a lack of proper medication. The leader will need massive support from healthcare workers and other disaster management organizations to acquire the necessary medications and to get enough support during the process (Pourvakhshoori et al., 2017). The support will ensure that the evacuation process is safe and conducted in the right way. Lack of proper support will only increase the risks due to the disaster instead of managing it.
Another moral and ethical decision to consider is the order of evacuation. There are different groups of people in the hospital, including patients and staffs. The patients also have varying degrees of illnesses leading to varying risks (Rey-Berrios, 2016). For example, the seventy patients with psychological difficulties will need to be transported in a particular order depending on their specific illnesses, the support they need, and severity of symptoms. Some of the patients might need minimal support, while others who are dependent might require special attention. The importance of using an evacuation order is to ensure patient and staff safety. However, the process might get difficult due to lack of enough resources and conflicts of interest. Some patients and family members may pile pressure on the leader to be favored (Adini et al., 2016). Also, the inadequacy of resources may require that some sacrifices are made. This is an ethical decision that the leader will have to make and within time.
During the evacuation process, patients, their care providers, and medications will need to be transported. This needs a good transport system, sufficient patient monitoring, and accommodative shelter. The transport system should be fast, safe, and spacious. This would help in transporting the patients and allowing for regular patient monitoring or any emergency treatment that might be needed. A bus would be a good option when transporting the patients over a short distance. In the bus will be at least five healthcare personnel per twenty patients to monitor the process. The identified shelter should ensure the continuation of treatment processes during the disaster management procedures.
The disaster management leader must also be able to handle the management teams effectively to ensure a smooth process. During the evacuation, different agencies, departments, and individuals will be working together. There is, therefore, the need to collaborate and corporate to ensure that all procedures are carried out effectively towards a common goal of safe evacuation. Effective collaboration ensures that individuals with different expertise work in a team to achieve success. It also helps to coordinate events to avoid confusion, conflicts, and possible overlap (Pourvakhshoori et al., 2017). All these require that the leader uses team leadership skills to manage the response team.
References
Adini, B., Ohana, A., Furman, E., Ringel, R., Golan, Y., Fleshler, E., ... & Reisner, S. (2016). Learning lessons in emergency management: the 4th International Conference on Healthcare System Preparedness and Response to Emergencies and Disasters. Disaster and military medicine , 2 (1), 16.
Pourvakhshoori, N., Norouzi, K., Ahmadi, F., Hosseini, M., & Khankeh, H. (2017). Nursing in disasters: A review of existing models. International emergency nursing , 31 , 58-63.
Rey-Berrios, R. (2016, March). Disaster survivor assistance teams assisting Bossier City residents . Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/images/115495
