Study: Michigan EDs are disaster-ready

Eighty-four percent of emergency departments in Michigan are better prepared to handle a terrorist attack or natural disaster today than they were seven years ago, according to a new Henry Ford Hospital study, which analyzed differences in emergency preparedness based on responses to a 31-question survey sent to all Michigan EDs in 2012 and 2005. Today the EDs have decontamination rooms, antidotes for nerve gas and cyanide, and more respiratory protection supplies. However, respondents said they could benefit from more disaster training, more equipment, and better coordination with local and regional emergency agencies. "Hospitals think they're prepared, and on paper it might appear to be the case. But unless you've been through a real event, you just don't know," said Howard Klausner, M.D., a Henry Ford emergency medicine physician and the study's senior author. Announcement