How Kaiser Permanente Prepares for Disasters

The reality is that the risks hospitals face today are different than what they imagined a decade ago – and that a rapidly changing climate poses yet unforeseeable hazards for the future. In Santa Rosa, California, Kaiser Permanente has learned from evacuating under the threat of wildfire twice in the past two years. From these experiences, they’ve built systems and solutions that health care systems anywhere can learn from, including conducting a system-wide bed availability assessment, controlling patient transfer prior to mandatory evacuation, preparing for patient evacuation early, and using an evacuation toolkit including a tracking system.