Well, while others may be planning for pandemic flu or some other looming public health threat, we in the ER focus on a more pressing yet under-studied issue of disaster preparedness.
Zombies.
That's right, those cannibalistic, brain-hungry undead drones who might at any moment rise up against us. Swine flu? Get a mask, wash your hands. But zombies? Bet your hospital doesn't have a incident plan for that.
Starting around 0230 the other night, the whole ED staff from attending to tech grew embroiled in a heated debate about best practices for a potential zombie apocalypse. How could we ensure the physical security of the department? How long could we live off the hospital turkey sandwiches? Would a laryngoscope prove an effective close range weapon against a recently-deceased patient lusting for your brain?
While a summary of our findings probably won't make its way into the Annals of Emergency Medicine anytime soon, rest assured that the committed professionals of the emergency department are working 24/7 to keep you safe.
5 comments:
http://chalkboard.blogs.gainesville.com/files/2009/10/zombieplan.pdf
Ha! Glad to see others are taking steps to address this important issue!
I don't know about your ED, but come nighttime, it's pretty hard to identify who's a zombie and who's one of our normal, lovely neighborhood patients/family members/malingerers
That can definitely be a difficult distinction to make... occasionally for our staff as well!
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