How to handle a medical emergency in your hotel?
A medical emergency in your hotel can be a crisis that you want to avoid.
However, If you have been working in a hotel long enough, I am certain, you will have faced issues with some medical emergencies related to guest.
If you have been lucky, and not handled any untoward incidents, being prepared is the only solution for you because medical emergencies can happen at any time.
What are medical emergencies?
In a hotel, we practice for fire safety, conduct drills and quarterly testing of all equipment. However there are times when the emergency is not due to fire.
It affects individuals and you will be called upon to provide first aid treatment.
With lifestyles changing and more people travelling, cardiac arrest and other life threatening diseases are common occurrence. Being prepared will help you activate the response mechanism.
Tie up with Hospital
When you open your hospital, tie up with 2 or 3 hospital in the vicinity who can help you with emergency services.
Maintain cordial relations with the PRO and other key contacts who can help in case of an need.
Also ensure that front office and security has all the key contacts for the hospitals and ambulance before hand so that they can dial and call for help and support.
Also tie up with a General practitioner who can be available on call to help with smaller emergencies.
Have the necessary medical equipment
While you will have first aid boxes with Band-Aid and medicines for cuts and burns, it is important to have certain necessary medical equipment with you at the hotel.
Wheelchairs, Stretcher and Portable Oxygen supplies should be readily available. You can also choose to keep an AED (Automated External Defibrillators ) to help with critical cardiac arrest cases where the patient is unconscious.
Make an Emergency response team
Make an maintain an emergency response team to help with medical emergencies. Train the team to provide basic first aid and be the first responders for any critical crisis.
The emergency response team must be well trained to correctly use the equipment you have purchased. Along with fire safety drills, an emergency medical drill protocol must be initiated to ensure you have a quick first response.
Make a crisis communication protocol
A simple document should be sufficient, if you have mentioned who should be responsible for handling the crisis.
The crisis communication document must also assign roles and responsibilities to individuals that can help with dealing with the crisis
Usually it will be the general manager who leads the operation, but the document should have details that can help the team.
Also there must be an official spokesperson who has been identified in advance to ensure they provide correct communication to press questions.
In conclusion
A medical emergency can happen any time of the day in your hotel. Being prepared is the key to handling it effectively.
You can do that by:
- Tying up with a hospital
- Have the necessary medical equipment in your hotel
- Make an emergency response team
- Make a crisis communication protocol
Train your team to handle a crisis. Help them prepare with our online learning library. Click here to know more about our team plans
And if you are interested in training your team, do check out our training plans for hotels
