The New York City Health Department conducted the exercises as part of the city’s Health Care Systems Readiness Program. They tested plans to more efficiently transfer patients from one healthcare facility to another during natural disasters, such as major coastal storms.
Per the three-hour evacuation drill, 22 hospitals and three nursing homes in six evacuation zones in New York City were given an hour’s notice to transfer 6,000-plus patients to 33 hospitals and seven nursing homes outside the evacuation zones. Around 1,000 healthcare professionals participated in the drill.
“Health care facilities need to be prepared for all types of emergencies, and the collective efforts of this agency and our health care partners — today and every day — make this city safer for everyone,” Oxiris Barbot, MD, commissioner of the health department, said to the Brooklyn Reader.
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