Evacuation of a Paediatric Hospital Ward in Italy: Lessons Learnt From an Announced Evacuation Drill

The process of evacuating a hospital ward is a complex task that involves several challenges related to emergency protocols, such as the need for assisted evacuation, the staff/patient ratio, and the functional limitations of patients. The purpose of this work is to present a possible sequence of events that can take place during an evacuation drill in a paediatric hospital ward. This is deemed to provide guidance in performing such type of drills and investigate assisted evacuation timelines. The drill was conducted inside a paediatric ward in Italy, at that time closed for maintenance, with the help of figurants emulating paediatric patients. The medical personnel were the ones normally working inside the facility. The activity was video recorded and summarised in a written report. This allowed the analysis of the drill and the reconstruction of typical set of events and timelines that take place in such type of evacuation drill scenarios.