Pharmacy services in emergency management

Abstract

Emergency management is the discipline dealing with and avoiding risks. It involves preparing, supporting, and rebuilding society when natural or human-made disasters occur. This article focuses and highlights the positive effects of the pharmacist's actions in local emergency preparedness activities. No one knows when or where an incident will occur, and what will be its cause. A hospital's disaster plan usually addresses both internal emergencies, such as loss of electric power and external disasters such as natural disasters including earthquakes and man-made disasters which provide no advanced warning. In the last few years, a new category of disasters has appeared: terrorist acts. The process of emergency management involves four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Figure 1 clearly depicts these four phases. Mitigation measures are attempts employed prior to incident, to minimize the damage and to prevent hazards from developing into actual disasters. The preparedness phase includes activities conducted before a disaster to improve readiness. These include plans of action, communication, dissemination. stockpiling, maintenance and training. The response phase deals with mobilization of the necessary emergency services during the disaster, in the actual disaster area. The recovery phase involves procedures that help restore business operations to normal, that is, levels similar to those before the incident.