The lessons learnt by a small-scale hospital during Hokkaido blackout

Abstract

On September 6th 2018 at 3:07 am, Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake occurred, followed by the power outage which covered whole Hokkaido. Although the hospital building had constructed 37 years ago, the building itself was not damaged. However, the outage lasted for 41 hours and had major impacts on dialysis treatments, managements of ventilators, and general medical care systems. It was also difficult to obtain the fuel required for the emergency power supply system. Thanks to the registration with EMIS (Emergency Medical Information System), we were able to promptly transfer patients to other medical institutions for continuous treatments of dialysis/ventilator. As the lessons leant from this experience, it is necessary to prepare an action card which makes each staff move without hesitations in the event of a disaster, including staffs comprehending the scale of lifelines like electricity and water supply of the facility, and preparing communication system and equipment in advance.