During the medical rescue of Wenchuan earthquake, in accordance with the instruction of the Chinese Ministry of Health, West China Hospital set up the Medical Supply Center for Medical Teams from Other Provinces, put up standard storehouses within 10 hours, performed professional purchase, precisely distributed medical materials according to relevant demands, and decided the scientific route based on the distribution of medical teams from other provinces, so as to ensure the medical materials’ being delivered to the medical teams safely, promptly and accurately.
Objective To analyze retrospectively the overall situation of medical rescue in the Third People’s Hospital of Chengdu after the Wenchuan earthquake, so as to provide references for the emergency preparedness for the disaster of earthquake. Methods The analysis was based on the data provided by the Department of Information, the Medical Record Library, the Department of Emergency, the Department of Orthopaedics and other related departments of the Hospital up to 8 a.m. of July 12. The software of Microsoft EXCEL was used for data input, and SPSS 11.5 was used for statistical analysis. Results Up to July 12, 563 cases from the disaster area had been treated in the hospital, of whom 249 were admitted into the outpatient department and 314 into the inpatient department, including 287 men and 276 women, with a median age of 42 years (28, 57) in the outpatient department and a median age of 46 years (33, 65) in the inpatient department. The inpatients’ age was older than the outpatients’s (P=0.003). Most outpatients were sent to the hospital within the first 3 days after the quake (73.50%), while less than half of the inpatients were sent to the hospital during this period of time. The wounded were mainly from Dujiangyan, Aba Prefecture and Pengzhou, which was correlated with the transportation distance, the casualty and the condition of the local hospitals. The wounded were mainly admitted into the Departments of Orthopaedics (69.3%), Neurosurgery (15.6%) and General Surgery (3.7%). The total cost in the Department of Orthopaedics was the highest, followed by the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the Department of Neurosurgery. However, the median cost in the ICU was the highest, followed by the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Nephrology. Only 9 out of the 563 patients died, including 5 outpatients and 4 inpatients, of whom 8 deaths were due to craniocerebral injury and 1 died of crush syndrome. Conclusion Based on the data, it is of vital importance to develop an emergent plan for the medical rescue after an earthquake disaster, and to strengthen the reserve of medical supplies, personnel training, scientific field triage as well as the construction of information platforms.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit china again, 702 days after Wenchuan Earthquake at Yushu prefecture of Qinghai province, 4000 meters above sea level. Up to April 19th, the death toll climbed to 1706, with 256 missing and 12128 injured. West China Hospital, as a regional state-level hospital of Ministry of Health, organized the first batch of medical team with relief supplies at the first day after Yushu earthquake and rushed to Yushu taking part into the rescue effort in golden seventy-two hours. The second day after Yushu earthquake, medical apparatus and drugs valued 5,000,000 RMB were delivered to the rescue site and the second batch of medical team were positioned. Within thirty three hours after the earthquake, 102 people, including 93 earthquake related injuries and 9 armed police with severe altitude illness, were sent to our hospital by air in four batches successively. Based on the first-hand experience of medical rescue in Wenchuan Earthquake, a series of diagnosis and treatment criteria which were built and developed with evidence-based method, and “four concentration principles”, namely concentrating the wounded, concentrating the experts, concentrating resources, and concentrating treatments, our medical rescue in Yushu earthquake were carried out appropriately. Up to 12 am., April 19th, 93 cases from the disaster area have been treated, of whom 54 seriously wounded, 58 underwent operations and none death. The experience learnt from Wenchuan Earthquake have been used, improved and sublimated more rapidly, more appropriately, more effectively in the Yushu earthquake medical rescue.
During the medical rescue of Wenchuan earthquake, West China Hospital immediately shifted to the two-track emergent system mode. More works have been done in time to cure and treat those critically ill patients effectively and to protect the medical safety of patients. The Activated Contingency Plans for major disasters have been started up to evacuate safely those mild patients in the hospital,to prevent out of danger and other accidents. More works have done on the identification of the injured or patients to improve the accuracy and strictly implement the "three investigations and seven right" system to prevent a wrong operation, or a wrong prescription, or a wrong transfusion. We have worked carefully on the referral the wounded, to referr the wounded to those Hospitals in Chengdu or other province and to prevent security incidents.
Shortly after the disastrous Wenchuan earthquake, a harmonious working environment for healthcare professionals both at home and abroad has been formed in West China Hospital, under an integrated managerial framework and working model. Four foreign medical teams consisting of over 70 professionals and foreign medical materials weighing about 8 tons have been accepted. This model may provide references for the reception of foreign medical teams during the emergent medical rescue for any unexpected event in the future.
Energy interruption and infrastructure damage are the common characteristic between the snow disaster occurred in some southern provinces of China and the 5?12 Wenchuan earthquake in China in 2008. This paper summaries the effects on medical and health institutions caused by interruption of energy flow and damaged infrastructure, shares the preparation and response practices, experience, and lessons of medical disasters, and gives suggestions about how to prepare and response for medical and health institutions when energy flow is interrupted and infrastructure is damaged.
During the medical rescue after Wenchuan earthquake, the Department of Appliances and Materials of West China Hospital took prompt action to ensure the regular operation of hospital devices and facilities. Meanwhile, owing to its specialized superiority of material and appliance purchase as well as the optimized processes for material and appliance supply, the hospital ensured the effective supply of disaster relief materials and efficiently managed the consumption of donated materials. From May 12 to 30, a total of 2 200 000 pieces of medical materials (total value RMB 3 770 000 Yuan) and 220 sets of medical appliance (total value RMB 9 000 000 Yuan) were purchased as part of the immediate medical rescue response to the earthquake.
To retrospectively summarize the medical rescue organization and strategy of West China Hospital medical team during the Wenchuan earthquake so as to provide reference for rescue practice in the future. We emphasize that the key point to improve the efficiency of rescue is scientifically assigning and util izing medical resource according to the demand at the actual locale of the earthquake and the characters of various stages of the earthquake .
The Department of Finance, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, ChinaAbstract During the medical rescue of the earthquake, the Department of Finance of West China Hospital initiated emergency response plan, not only ensured the security of funds of hospital in the earthquake, but also opened a green channel of emergent finance to the wounded, so as to assure more than 2 600 wounded people of their registration for emergency treatment, emergent disposal, hospitalization, operation and medication, the comprehensive, precise and prompt record of which offered the government the basic data and references to work out the policy of financial subsidy for the treatment of the wounded. Furthermore, the financial supervision and management of materials and funds of disaster relief were reinforced.
The May 12 8-magnitude earthquake caused damage to 87.7% of the health systems in the worst-hit Mianyang areas with 326 casualties and the direct economic loss of RMB 3 124 billion. Within 30 minutes after the earthquake, the Mianyang headquarters for earthquake disaster relief and the Mianyang public health headquarters for medical rescue and treatment were organized. Five medical teams were sent to Beichuang County, the worst-hit Mianyang area within four hours after the earthquake. A total of 22 947 wounded and sick were delivered to local hospitals after simple triage and rapid treatment through three station. By June 30, the Mianyang medical organisation had received 379 600 person times and admitted 21628 inpatients in total, including 2 772 severely-wounded (including 146 with limbs amputated and 846 dead during the stay). Since May 17, 3381 wounded had been transferred to 14 provincial and city-level hospitals across China. On June 20, the Mianyang Rehabilitation Center for wounded and sick people was established and received 156 rehabilitation inpatients and cured 32 ones. Together with the medical team for psychological intervention, they provided psychological support for victims for over 70 000 person times. Within two hours after the earthquake, the Mianyang Organisation for Health and Epidemic Control and Prevention launched the emergency response plan for major natural disasters, prepared and improved the technical scheme for disease prevention after the earthquake. The organisation rapidly sent out emergency teams for disease control and prevention and completed the following tasks: disinfection and burial of corpses and disposal of carcasses, monitoring of the water quality and epidemics, disinfection of environmental ruins, epidemic control in resettled areas, precaution of the secondary disasters caused by the earthquake and conduction of large-scale health education. The emergency command system for medical rescue and disease control and prevention in the worst-hit Mianyang areas after Wenchuan Earthquake integrated resources, carried out the unified command and responded rapidly. Moreover, the headquarter of medical relief coordinated and orderly unified the governmental and non-governmental organizations, which achieved good performance for both medical relief and anti-epidemic. The experience of earthquake medical relief will benefit the post-disaster reconstruction, as well as the establishment of national and regional emergency response systems.