Vulnerability Assessment of Health Care Facilities during Disaster Events
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 15, Issue 3
Abstract
Infrastructure systems are essential to the operation of health care facilities and do not exist in isolation of one another—telecommunications networks require electricity, transportation networks require systems information to operate, emergency systems require transportation networks, and so forth. During a disaster event, health care facilities are expected to operate efficiently to provide sufficient care to injured patients. However, medical care for injured patients can be affected if health care facilities do not have a sufficient supply of electricity, water, access to road transportation networks, etc. This paper presents a methodology to assist in the analysis of the operational vulnerability of a health care facility during disaster events, considering the impact of disruption of a selected number of critical infrastructure systems in the flow of patients. It integrates the analysis of external infrastructure systems and the internal capabilities of the facility. The analysis of external infrastructure systems is performed using mathematical models that use optimization techniques to determine the unsatisfied demand in the major infrastructure systems and the impact of this shortage of resources on the operation of the hospital. A system dynamics simulation model is used to represent the internal operation of the health care facility, including the interaction between the different service areas, the flow of patients within the facility, and the condition of the external infrastructure systems that supply its resources. The framework and modeling presented in this paper can assist in determining cost-effective operational strategies in a health care facility that better respond to disaster events because they consider the interdependencies between infrastructure systems.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Bilsland Fellowship which was awarded by the Graduate School at Purdue University. Funding during the doctoral work of the first writer was also provided through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant No. NSFCMS-0201364. These sources of support are gratefully acknowledged. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the writers, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Graduate School at Purdue University or of the National Science Foundation.
References
Ahuja, R. K., Magnanti, T. L., and Orlin, J. B. (1993). Network flows, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Arboleda, C. A., Abraham, D. M., and Lubitz, R. M. (2007). “Simulation as a tool to assess the vulnerability of the operation of a health care facility.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 21(4), 302–312.
Barbera, J., and Macintyre, A. (2002). “A Medical and health incident management (MaHIM) system: A comprehensive functional system description for mass casualty and health incident management.” Rep. Prepared for the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management, The George Washington Univ., Washington, D.C.
Brown, V. A., Beyeler, T., and Barton, D. W. (2004). “Assessing infrastructure interdependencies: The challenge of risk analysis for complex adaptive systems.” Int. J. Crit. Infrastructures (IJCIS), 1(1), 108–117.
Haimes, Y. Y., Horowitz, B. M., Lambert, J. H., Santos, J. R., Crowther, K., and Lian, C. (2005b. “Inoperability input-output model for interdependent infrastructure sectors. II: Case studies.” J. Infrastruct. Syst., 11(2), 80–92.
Haimes, Y. Y., Horowitz, B. M., Lambert, J. H., Santos, J. R., Lian, C., and Crowther, K. (2005a). “Inoperability input-output model for interdependent infrastructure sectors. I: Theory and methodology.” J. Infrastruct. Syst., 11(2), 67–79.
Haimes, Y. Y., and Jiang, P. (2001). “Leontief-based model of risk in complex interconnected infrastructures.” J. Infrastruct. Syst., 7(1), 1–12.
Heller, M. (2002). “Life cycle infrastructure risk management: R&D needs.” Risk management strategies in an uncertain world, Columbia-Wharton/Penn Roundtable, New York.
Lee, E. E., Mendonca, D., Mitchell, J. E., and Wallace, W. A. (2003). “Restoration of services in interdependent infrastructure systems: A network flows approach.” Technical Rep. No. 38–03–507, Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.
Leontief, W. (1936). “Quantitative input-output relations in the economic system of the United States.” Rev. Econ. Stat., 18, 105–125.
Macal, C., and North, M. J. (2002) “Simulating energy markets and infrastructure interdependencies with agent based models.” Proc., Social Agents: Ecology, Exchange, and Evolution Conf., Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, 1–20.
Macal, C., and North, M. J. (2005) “Tutorial on agent-based modeling and simulation.” Proc., 2005 Winter Simulation Conf., M. E. Kuhl, N. M. Steiger, F. B. Armstrong, and J. A. Joines, eds., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., 2–14.
National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets. (2003). The White House, ⟨http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/physical.html⟩ (Dec. 2005).
Nozic, L. K., Turnquist, M. A., Jones, D. A., Davis, J. R., and Lawton, C. R. (2004) “Assessing the performance of interdependent infrastructure and optimizing investments.” Proc., 37th Hawaii Int. Conf. on System Sciences, IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., 1–7.
Rinaldi, S. M. (2004). “Modeling and simulating critical infrastructures and their interdependencies.” Proc., 37th Hawaii Int. Conf. on System Sciences, IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., 1–8.
Rinaldi, S. M., Peerenboom, J. P., and Kelly, T. K. (2001). “Identifying, understanding, and analyzing critical infrastructure interdependencies.” Control Systems Magazine, Issue 6, IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., 11–25.
Schrobsdorff, S. (2005). “A horrible dream.” Newsweek—Web exclusive, Sept. 7, ⟨www.msnbc.msn.com⟩ (Sept. 8, 2005).
Wallace, W. A., Mendonca, D. M., Lee, E. E., Mitchell, J. E., and Chow, J. H. (2003). “Managing disruptions to critical interdependent infrastructures in the context of the 2001 World Trade Center attack. Beyond September 11: An account of post disaster research.” Natural Hazards Research & Applications Information Center, Public Entity Risk Institute, and Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, Special Publication #39, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
Winston, W. L. (2004). Operations research, applications and algorithms, 4th Ed., Int. Thomson Publishing, Belmont, Calif.
Zimmerman, R. (2003). “Public infrastructure service flexibility for response and recovery in the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center.” Beyond September 11: An account of post disaster research, Natural Hazards Research & Applications Information Center, Public Entity Risk Institute, and Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, Special Publication #39, 600.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 20, 2006
Accepted: Aug 20, 2008
Published online: Aug 14, 2009
Published in print: Sep 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.