ASOURCE Times

BCM is more important than BCP formulation

Tohoku University Hospital is one of the disaster base hospitals that was established in the wake of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, and we have constantly updated the disaster countermeasure manual to maintain our activities as a base hospital. In 2017, we compiled the first edition of the Disaster Prevention and Business Continuity Plan (Hospital BCP) and revised it to the second edition in 2019. From the beginning, I thought that "making the goal of formulating a BCP as a document" was meaningless. It is important to continuously carry out business continuity management (BCM) to spread the concept of business continuity in the hospital, how to maintain the function when the hospital is involved in a disaster, and from normal times. Incorporated inspection and improvement of hospital BCP and implementation of education and training.

The basis of business continuity is to quickly grasp the damage situation

The basic policy of Tohoku University Hospital in the event of a large-scale disaster is to ensure the safety of patients and faculty members, to respond to the disaster, and to support the local community. We will set up a disaster response headquarters according to the disaster response manual, quickly grasp the damage situation in the hospital, and determine the disaster level. At our hospital, we classify disaster levels into 1 to 4, and according to the level, we will proceed with preparations for accepting injured and sick people and disaster recovery in the hospital to prepare the hospital, and we will start support for disaster areas as a disaster base hospital.

On the other hand, in the event of a disaster, human and physical damage will occur, but even in such a situation, the work that should be prioritized is regarded as "important work", and the important work of each department and the target time to start are decided. I am. For example, if the damage to the hospital is judged to be minor, we will prepare to accept a large number of injured and sick people within 1 hour, and start supporting the lives of staff and inpatients within 12 hours.

Looking back on actual disasters and training, constantly reviewing

The existence of BCP as a format has no effect. In order for hospitals to truly maintain their functions in the event of a disaster, it is important to have a BCM that continuously implements proactive measures, education and training, inspections and improvements, and securing budgets and medical resources from normal times. BCP is just a document that describes the specific procedure. To that end, it is necessary to create a system that can constantly review the BCP. At this hospital, the deputy hospital director serves as the chairman of the BCP committee, and the committee once a month creates and reviews a system for managing the progress of problem solving in the previous year and securing a budget.

However, the current BCP still has challenges. BCP, which is mainly premised on the occurrence of large earthquakes, is unexpected from flood damage such as typhoons and floods that have occurred repeatedly in recent years. On the other hand, due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, procurement of masks and gowns was temporarily delayed, but this led to a review of the supply chain and led to the awareness of new issues for BCP.

BCP does not formulate and store the file on the bookshelf, but it functions as a useful plan for business continuity in the event of a disaster only after it is constantly reviewed through training and daily medical care.