Background & Objectives: The role of hospital pharmacy in emergency preparedness and their management is often neglected, especially in occidental countries with rare exposure to natural catastrophes or civil disturbances. This raises questions about what a hospital pharmacy service must do to prepare and support the management of catastrophes. Indeed, in such exceptional situations, the availability of the pharmaceutical service isn't congruent to the demand anymore and priorities have to be set to guarantee the survival of patients. This research work aims to review the disaster management guidelines for hospital pharmacies, both at international and national levels, in order to determine the role and responsibility of the hospital pharmacy service and to establish a local and coordinated action plan.
Methods: International literature was searched to summarize activities of hospital pharmacies in disaster situations. A national survey of Swiss hospital pharmacies was then conducted to gather data on actual disaster plans. Finally, needs and expectations of the hospital partners were locally collected through semi-structured interviews.
Results: 219 publications on the topic were retrieved; 29 provided valuables information. Highlighted duties of hospital pharmacists were stock management of essential products and drug distribution. According to the national survey, 83% of the hospitals have a written disaster plan, while only 63% of the pharmacies have (disaster stockpile or defined procedures). The main tasks identified were emergency drug supply (including autonomy calculation and antidotes distribution) and participation to crisis management at the hospital level. Locally, expectations were about preparedness of the pharmacy (drug and antidote stockpiles) and quick mobilization of the employees via emergency call lists to provide both logistic and clinical support.
Discussion & Conclusions: While a hospital pharmacy service has to play a substantial role in disaster situations, it must take responsibility in disaster situations to guarantee optimal outcome. The gathered information was compiled and lead to the establishment of a disaster plan for the pharmacy service in mass casualty incidents.