Abstract:
|
The paper presents a hospital testbed which aims to
help the earthquake
engineering community moving another step toward th
e realization and
implementation of resilience(based design strategie
s for health care facilities. An
organizational model describing the response of the
Hospital Emergency
Department (ED) has been implemented using a discre
te events simulation model
(DES). The waiting time is the main response parame
ter used to evaluate the
resilience index of healthcare facilities during ea
rthquakes. A metamodel has been
developed from the DES model for different emergenc
y codes considering the
amplitude of the seismic input and the number of re
sources available right after
the seismic event. Results show that, for example,
when an earthquake
corresponding to 2% probability of exceedance in 50
year strikes, generating a
seismic wave of injured patients going to the ED, t
he average peak patient waiting
time is around 13 hours when an emergency plan is n
ot applied, regardless the
type of code considered. If the ED is damaged and e
mergency rooms are not
functional the average waiting time can increase dr
amatically and the ED is not
able to provide the proper service. |