Doctor's Digest

No preparedness plan can ignore the fact that, in an emergency, some staff members may be less accessible, less able, or even less willing to shoulder the burden than others. A recent study of over six thousand healthcare workers analyzed willingness to respond versus ability to respond. The study found that healthcare workers would be most willing to help out in a mass casualty incident or an environmental disaster. They would be least willing to respond to a smallpox epidemic, a radiological event, or an outbreak of SARS.