Module 1. Complex systems thinking, organization theory and behavior, and leadership theories and roles

Since the area where Saint Leo University Hospital is to be situated is commonly faced with hurricane disasters, and there is a need for preparedness plans that would effectively help save people's lives and property where possible. A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that is rapidly rotating and is characterized by the low-pressure center extremely strong winds that bring about heavy rains and thunderstorms. In order to reduce or minimize the risks of the calamity, a disaster preparedness plan must be developed to guide during the evacuation of people to safer areas in case of a hurricane. To cope with such a disaster, the manner in which the resources in the evacuation process are mobilized is vital in ensuring maximum success, as well as the safety of individuals involved in the following process.

Co-ordination of activities is an important aspect that will guarantee an efficient and swift process. The current challenges by hurricanes and those that are likely to emerge in the future will require new knowledge to understand their complexity, interconnection, as well as the threat they pose to the hospital and people in the future. Dealing with the challenges will also call on medics, engineers, security agencies and other emergency groups to coordinate their efforts in fighting the disaster. In order to utilize human resource present effectively, there should be a well-developed chain of commands from the top to bottom. Each individual or group should have and follow certain responsibilities outlined.

This will help avoid any confusion that could arise due to multiple command lines. Every group's input is necessary and hence need to be considered in the decision-making processes that are meant to improve the disaster preparedness plan. For example, during the construction process, the engineers need to consider that the construction site is located in the area that is highly prone to hurricanes. Therefore, in their building plans, they should envisage building in some protected areas at the strategic points to act as evacuation centers if a hurricane were to occur.

However, this cannot only be a prerogative of the engineers, organizational theory and behavior recommend that consultations should be the basis of a good decision making process. Thus, there will be an ultimate need for the engineers to consult the hospital leadership, who are the overseers of the construction process, as well as other groups from the local or state authorities that have the ability to disseminate information relating to an occurrence of a hurricane. Collaboration with the other stakeholders is a necessary tool in disaster management it should be noted that it is always viewed as a foundation for an effective and efficient disaster preparedness plan.

According to organizational theory and behavior, every successful organization needs a good leadership. That is, a leadership that has the ability to communicate relates as well as guides those that they lead. The leadership should also allow individuals to perform their duties and responsibilities without unnecessary interference. On their part, those who take a lower position in the command structure should ensure that they stick to the orders accorded to them and perform them without being observed as undermining leadership positions above them. During calamities, the unity of command is deemed most important in ensuring that everything is brought under control and every opportunity is used to achieve the goals, as well as objectives of the process.

Theories of leadership recommend some basic aspects of good leadership that will offer clear and effective decisions when a need arises. The hospital leadership should adopt a leadership style that will highly value both the personnel, as well as the output provided by the work of these individuals. The best approach model is where teamwork is encouraged. Every member of a group is expected to relate properly with other members, and all members have a common objective in fulfilling their obligations. The roles and duties of each person should be properly outlined and accorded to them based on the their level of qualifications and understanding of the techniques involved in disaster management.

Further, the leadership command structure should entail a top management, middle level management, and the rest of employees. Sometimes, it becomes difficult for top management to make effective decisions based on the lack of full knowledge or experience in a certain field. This will, thus, precipitate the need to have departmental leaders on every level, who have some abilities and technical knowhow of certain activities. This will effectively help in making appropriate decisions, as well as lowering the level of bureaucracy that is likely to increase the time period required to respond to an emergency situation that could arise. The heads of departments ought to have the authority to make certain decisions, that relate to their work, without necessarily having to wait for an approval from the higher leadership levels, as they may not be in a position to understand the magnitude of a disaster.

Module 2. Organization design, coordination, and motivation

Successful organizations derive their capabilities to perform from the well-organizationed designs that accumulate the abilities of every individual, group or level of management to make decisions. For an effective organizational design, there are five interrelated components that heavily guide development, adoption and execution of projects or plans by the organization. Firstly, there is the leadership design, which is the command center. The leadership design entails a strategy that captures all the activities that are to be performed by the organization. The hospital leadership should have a structure that engages every stakeholder with the ability to collect opinions from the lowest level of management. All the individuals will have their positions, roles and duties outlined to inform them of the tasks they are expected to partake during a hurricane disaster.

Secondly, there ought to be an effective decision-making structure. The voice of every stakeholders needs to be heard and considered for there to be an acceptable goal. The adoption of new methods of approaches will be well accepted and implemented if every individual feels that he or she has make his/her input in the decision.

Thirdly, hospitals have a huge number of human resource performing different tasks. People usually perform best when they notice recognition of their talents and abilities.

They will be very satisfied when their performance incentives and measures are aligned to the hospital's objectives. In developing a disaster preparedness plan, as well as its adoption and implementation, involved individuals should clearly understand that they are the ones charged with the responsibilities of ensuring its success.

Fourthly, there is the nature of work process and systems where they are required to be effective and efficient. Moreover, there should be a superior execution of proper work processes.

Finally, there is the existence of the organizational culture. Although the hospital is currently under construction, the behavioral nature and activities by the working teams at this point will largely impact the future culture that will entrench in the human resources working in the hospital. Positive culture ought to be developed for sustainable organizational agendas that will entail high-performance behaviors and values, as well as the possibilities to change.

Notwithstanding a good design, the hospital would be deeming to have a failed disaster preparedness plan if there were poor or no coordination. Disaster management involves different groups, people and systems or those who could be from within the hospital's management or the local or state authorities and departments. The Saint Leo University Hospital disaster preparedness plan should entail a coordination aspect of all the involved parties. For example, hospital management will require data from the local or state weather departments informing them of a likelihood of a hurricane approaching the area. Better coordination would allow knowing the hospital department or individual whom such information will be relayed to.

After having received the information, there should be a process by mean of which it will be passed to all the other departments. An emergency coordination center should be set up with a clear mandate of how to commence the safety and rescue processes, as well as to indicate the individuals to be involved. Further the plan should include the safer areas which people are to be evacuated to and the time frame that all these activities are supposed to be completed. In order to ensure proper and effective preparedness for the hurricane disasters, all the parties involved in the disaster processes should conduct regular drills to sharpen their skills, as well as ensure their readiness to respond in case of a calamity. Good coordinating of activities and operations signify that there are minimal gaps and overlaps in the work of the hospital.

Furthermore, it also creates good working relationships that allow information sharing that is core in ensuring disaster preparedness. It should be stressed that effective coordination, which is one of the most important objectives of a disaster plan, is core to avoid different teams and individuals pulling from different quarters, which could prove futile to achieving the set goals. Finally, there is a need for motivation of every individual involved in the development and execution of the plan. This motivation can be leveled from a number of ways, ranging from good remuneration, promotion, recognition and appreciation of one's work, as well as good working conditions and equipment among other things. Motivation of workers causes an emotional aspect where employees feel connected to the interest and objectives of the hospital and will, therefore, combine their individual goals to conform to those of the hospital. Motivation brings happiness to employees and thus better productivity.

Module 3. Work teams and communication

In every level of the organizational structure, every group had certain responsibilities in ensuring an effective preparedness plan. The head of every group is the head of the department who leads various teams structured under him or her. The heads of departments will coordinate their teams and involve them in processes necessary to make proper preparations in readiness for an impending disaster. The structure in the department allows for different teams that are trained in dealing with specific activities during a disaster. While setting up disaster preparedness plans each of these teams are expected to draw attention to their operations, opinions on the plan, the challenges they are likely to face, and how they intend to overcome such challenges.

Further, they are to ensure that the plan depict a clear guidance on the corroboration of different teams being involved. For example, when the supervisors receive information on a hurricane, they need to quickly relay the data to the emergency preparedness committee. This committee is expected to carry out an analysis of the magnitude of a hurricane, the areas it is likely to hit and the time frame in which it will likely to reach the hospital. The evaluation and analysis of this information will allow the leaders of the hospital to make concrete decisions on the evacuation process. Further, recommendations to evacuate should then be communicated to the building evacuation coordinators who are expected to draw up and implement the evacuation process.

On their part, evacuation coordinators are expected to ensure that their evacuation team structures are strong and have the ability to dispatch information to the entire team membership at the time of an evacuation exercise. The evacuation process is usually a complex task that calls for the communication to be clear and concise to save time, as well as to avoid confusion. There should be only one command center, and the information should be channeled through a common medium where all the team members get access to commands in real time. It is required that the evacuation team comprises medics, rescuers, and security personnel. Each of these individuals must be communicated to and on time. For effective alerts, the hospital engineers are supposed to set up a security system that will give an alert that a hurricane is about to happen, as well as the timing. This communication system could be supported by a backup generator to allow for a smooth information flow, as well as a evacuation process in case the main electricity has been cut off by the heavy rains or thunderstorms.

Organizational communication is vital to the successful implementation of a hospital preparedness plan. In their book, Vardaman and Halterman (1968) defined organizational communication as a flow of information, perceptions, materials, as well as the understanding among various members within an organization. This definition includes all channels, systems and networks of communication, as well as the person to person exchanges that may occur. The complexity of this definition clearly fits the St. Leo University Hospital communication scenario where information is expected to be dispatched through all the available means during the implementation of a disaster preparedness plan. Moreover, communication in this case could be from top to bottom when giving orders and commands or from bottom to top while relaying feedback to superiors for guidance or reporting purposes. It could be lateral while communicating or in discussion among the workmates.

The most appropriate communication channel at this case could be through mobile phones, the internet, written communication or direct speaking. However, the point at which each of these means will be put to use will depend on the ease, efficiency, security and speed of relaying the required information. The security nature of information arises to ensure avoidance of licking information that was meant to remain secret or information that could lead to panic amongst the patients of the hospital at the time. Besides being a mode of passing information, communication allows establishing good relationship among workmates. Through communication, people make friends and are able to relieve mental fatigue while in their workplace. People are further able to air their opinions at ease and communicate on the job challenges that they face and how they could effectively tackle these challenges as a team.

Saint Leo University Hospital should, thus, entrench a workable communication system, as well as an environment to guarantee the implementation and success of the disaster management. The system should include all the modes of communication that will help detect the hurricane, how the information is dispatched to, and by each team within the organization. Further, the hospital needs to ensure some proper data analysis mechanisms that will provide clear and understandable information.

Module 4: Power, politics, and conflict management

Organizations are made up a number of power elements emanating from diverse interest groups, such as alliances with special interests, departmental interest groups, managerial power interests, and individual interests. These groups present within an organization gives rise to power plays, thus resulting in organizational politics. Power and politics could be either the advantage or disadvantage of the organization. Saint Leo University Hospital management will not be an exemption from these challenges as they always arise in organizations where human resource is present. The power games and politics are cultivated by those who feel superior to others or seek favors in the eyes of those in the leadership positions.

Although at times these plays may lead to competition and thus increased productivity, this rarely happens. In most cases, power struggles ends up hurting performances of the organization. The success of St. Leo University Hospital will depend on its ability to handle such power struggles when they arise. Most of the interest groups will attempt to divert the objectives of the organizations to suit their own through the policy making processes. For example, some evacuation coordinators may avoid informing their supervisors of the situation on the ground, thus undermining proper coordination from the top. Since several other challenges could also arise, there will always be the need for proper conflict management approaches.

It is critical to understand that every leadership structure in an organization is a political structure and thus highly prone to political interferences in order to fit the interests of certain groups. Bearing that in mind, it is, therefore, impossible to keep politics of the hospital leadership. However, there are certain approaches that could be put forward to ensure positive results from those political activities.

Firstly, the devolution of power and authority is necessary to committees and departments. According to organizational theories of management, one of the ways to ensure that junior employees feel recognized and do not sabotage the objectives of the organization is to allow them some authority and autonomy in their areas of specialization. This trick makes them feel that they are part of the management and cannot sabotage the objective that they have developed themselves. An evacuation team may feel that their interests are not properly represented in the group and that they are only given orders and never a chance to make decisions on such orders. In protest, they may perform their jobs very slowly in order to try and prove the inability of the decision to be implemented.

A hospital setup always deals with health issues, and thus, some groups may feel underrepresented. In order to contend this notion, the hospital leadership must allow the development of the disaster preparedness plan to originate from the concerned department, while at the same time, ensuring that junior officers in the department have their input that has effectively been considered. Secondly, it is important that those in power positions recognize the efforts of those who have performed exemplary good or whose opinions and decisions have greatly contributed to the development, implementation and success of the plan. When members realize that their input is recognized and their efforts are appreciated, they will gladly adopt the plan and seek its implementation to the fullest and without a hitch.

Further, it is necessary that in the hospitals leadership structure, there be conflict resolution mechanisms. These mechanisms could be either vertical or horizontal. That is to ensure that they have the ability to resolve the crisis that may arise between junior officers and theirs seniors, as well as among members who are in the same level of management. Furthermore, those in the positions of power should effectively restrain themselves from abusing that power while at the same time endeavoring to play their supervisory role to the fullest. Abuse of power could lead to discontent among junior officers. This may result in a ago-slow or full strike or protest what they may consider as oppression by their seniors.

Good managers ought to show characteristics of good leaders whose intent is to supervise, protect and motivate their employees to do their best.

The implementation phase of the disaster preparedness plan is highly dependent on a political environment within the leadership of the hospital. A poor political environment will undermine the plan as disagreements and disruption will spoil the entire process. However, should the environment be conducive, the success of the plan will be eminent. It is always the responsibility of the leadership to put some mitigating measures that keep the hospital environment conducive.

Module 5: Organizational complexity, organizational learning and innovation, and quality improvement

In the today's world, organizational complexities are a common phenomenon. In the case of St. Leo University Hospital, these complexities emerge from different environmental changes. These environmental changes have posed a threat to the very operations of the hospital, which are meant to save people's lives. The complexities created by the changes in the environment are known to cause much damage to both people's lives and property, and thus, there is the need to develop a protective mechanism against the damage. Organizational complexities are very likely to lead to failure in the goal achievements of the hospital. They are drawbacks that divert the attention and resources of the hospital from some other areas, other than its core operations. This is done in the disaster preparedness plan making process.

While considering a successful plan, it is important to lay more focus on the disaster that the hospital tries to insulate itself from. For St. Leo University Hospital plan to be effective, there is a need to develop dynamic networks that recognize and relate to the challenges that are brought about by a hurricane. The main objective of the following networks is to evaluate and analyze the magnitude of the hurricanes that have hit the area in the recent past, as well as the extent of the damage caused. This will give them better chances in developing a plan that will be effective and worthwhile to stand some of the challenges that come along with a new hurricane. The organizational complexity will result in the establishment of a clear strategic direction. It means that the plan will show the course that an evacuation process should take.

It will create the need to have all the hospital's communication and emergency centers streamlined to ensure that there is a proper response to a crisis. It will also incorporate the objectives of different individuals to align with those of the entire organization to guarantee safer implementation. Since there are a lot of challenges that accompany hurricanes, continues assessment and storage of data for use as a reference in future should be created and maintained by the leadership of the hospital. As the hospital is new, it has not faced any challenges yet. Given that the area where it has been constructed, there is a possibility that information has been gathered on the weather conditions that are present in the area.

Furthermore, a certain department will be required to assess the information and data given by its disaster management team on hurricanes, challenges that they usually face and the ways how such challenges will be avoided in the future. Again, the hospital needs to create a culture of knowledge and information sharing within its structures to ensure that the best decisions or conclusions are made about a calamity. It is very important to remember that despite the fact that there are different departments, their singular objectives are aligned to those of the entire hospital, and thus, information sharing is a necessity.

Moreover, individuals within the hospital structure are also required to share important information with their counterparts. During the organizational learning process, St. Leo University Hospital may create and organize knowledge based on its culture and health functions. This will help the organization to quickly adapt to the first changing environment. Further, it will lead to the innovations that will be useful in countering the effects of a disaster when it hits the hospital. In order to make the hospital stand the test of destruction by the hurricane and continue its services, innovations that will play a great deal in creating an efficient and effective disaster preparedness plan for the hospital will be a must.

Finally, when a hurricane hits and damage is caused, an assessment should be made to see where performance was not as expected. This could be from the hospitals own damage or the damage in the adjacent areas. When the problem has been ascertained, a new process of developing a quality improvement to the systems, structures building and equipments is commenced. Performing organizations put more emphasis on the organizational quality improvement. Although, disaster preparedness plan implies getting ready to manage a hurricane disaster, quality improvement on equipment and buildings is also necessary to ensure lesser damages and to provide safer places to hide during a hurricane. Moreover, quality improvement should be a continuous course to ensure that the hospital is prepared to handle a similar or even more powerful hurricane in case it occurs in the next period. Quality improvement is a sure way of convincing those working to develop the preparedness plan that they are on the right way to achieving their objectives.

Module 6: Strategic management, inter-organizational collaboration, and organizational values/mission/vision

The aim of strategic management is to formulate and implement the main objectives as well as initiatives by the top level management on assessment of both internal and external environments in which an organization operates. St. Leo University Hospital has its strategic management based on a healthy environment that will be good enough to offer medical services to patients with no threat to calamities. The hospital's strategic management envisages a good hospital environment to take good care of patients. This will greatly influence the formulation of the disaster preparedness plan as the core objective of the hospital lies is the well being of its patients.

The inter-organizational collaboration of the hospital will have an effect on its disaster preparedness plan. Collaboration between different departments and amongst stakeholders is necessary to ensure a directional policy for the entire hospital. There exist a number of interdependencies within the hospital structure that make it difficult for one department or group of people to operate in full disregard of the others. In the analysis on the hospital policies and objectives, there is the presence of departmental interconnectivity, thus calling for inter-organizational collaboration. This collaboration also entails inputs from different departments and interest groups to ensure that their grievances and opinions are considered in the creation of a disaster preparedness plan.

Every department has a unique role that it plays and thus needs to be effectively evaluated to realize how interferences with it can affect other departments. The other important factor that informs the development of a plan is the values of the hospital. All institutions have values that they so strongly feel connected to. Every operation by the hospital should be guided by those values that it has set for itself. The disaster preparedness plan will see employees' activities being measured against those of the hospital. It is usually difficult to lose organizational values. Saint Leo University Hospital's values are the qualities that define distinguishes it from the other hospitals. Thus, there is a need to include these values in every strategic decision that should be made.

The inclusion of these values in the disaster preparedness plan will entrench the much-needed organizational culture to every individual, group or department. The plan must establish itself within the existing organizational culture to be seen as a part and product of the hospital.

Further, the vision of the hospital should be observed in every initiative that it chooses to engage in. It is important to note that a vision statement defines desires of the hospital that it wants to realize and achieve in the future. It also includes all the descriptions of every employee's duties in the hospital, as well as an inspiration what the hospital needs to achieve. It is, therefore, highly inappropriate for the plan to seem to draw its guidance and inspiration from other quarters as opposed to the general organizational targets entrenched in the vision. It should be noted that a vision is what will encourage a good plan that seeks to protect what the entire hospital has envisaged.

A mission statement will also be effective in influencing the contents of the plan. The mission gives the current purpose of the hospital and answers the questions what it does, who it does it for, and how it does it. Hence, it would be unfortunate to have an assumption that a disaster preparedness plan will not include such ideas, which are essential, and portrays the real aims and objectives of the hospital.

The values, vision and mission establish an organization, develop its culture and ensure that it fulfills all its mandates. For example, in developing a disaster preparedness plan, such questions as why has it been worked out, how has it been created and what are its purposes should be considered. Answering these questions ought to portray the commonality that exists within the hospital’s mission as it is the main statement that guides the success of the hospital.

Similarly, the vision of the hospital should be reflected in the disaster preparedness. The plan should never be seen to contradict the mission, values and vision of the hospital.

Module 7: Health policy and regulation, health information systems

After terrorist attacks took place in the United States in September 11, 2001, the federal government issued an executive order requiring the Homeland Security Office in cooperation with other agencies to develop the policies that will guide in disaster preparedness. This included any kind of disaster that the nation could face, whether it is a terror attack or a hurricane. The Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPD) was meant to ensure the development of systems and policies that will help in preparation and response to various public health emergencies. The guidelines were to bring together intergovernmental as well as interagency grouping in order to coordinate disaster preparedness efforts. The guidelines further called for a cycle of preparedness by individuals and institutions in preventing, protecting, responding and recovering missions.

The missions were summarized as organizing, equipping, training, exercising, evaluating and improving the staff in dealing with different disasters. This has, thus, become the blueprint for most institutions across the United States to ensure that they conform to the government guidelines. In developing Saint Leo University Hospital disaster preparedness plan, these guidelines ought to be followed as provided for by the authorities. In fact the development of a preparedness plan itself is conformity to the adherence to the same rules. The guidelines offer a clear outline of how to develop an effective and efficient plan, as well as the process of its adoption and implementation to achieve the highest levels of successes.

Disaster preparedness is a vital and has been deemed by the guidelines as a responsibility that falls on all levels of the government, departments, agencies, institutions, as well as individual citizens. According to the guidelines, capabilities and the effective response mission should be reflected in a disaster preparedness plan. Therefore, the hospital will have to ensure that all stakeholders will participate in its development and implementation. In order to achieve this, the staff should be effectively trained in how to respond to hurricane disasters when they arise. The training should involve drills to eliminate any mistakes that may arise and help maintain every employee's readiness for any eventuality. Further, the hospital will be required to set up an information center that will receive and disseminate information to the entire hospital workforce.

Furthermore, it will be required to set up evacuation centers or lay down strategies regarding how to carry out an evacuation process when a disaster hits. However, it is important to note that the hospital needs to engage other agencies and authorities whether state or local in an effort to have a fast and smooth evacuation. The plan is just a national disaster plan policy that has been devolved to ensure preparedness of institutions and organizations. Thus, the development of the hospital's disaster preparedness plan must follow the government guidance and requirements.

In addition, the implementation of the plan should be done with a lot of care. The government guidelines confer that the safety of those engaged in the rescue or evacuation process should be guaranteed at all times. There ought to be proper mechanisms set to ensure that these individuals are well trained and equipped to perform the duties and responsibilities accorded to them. In order to boost the ability of the evacuation staff, the hospital may request local agencies and authorities to conduct joint drills.

Further, the hospital should develop alert systems that would notify the staff and patients of a hurricane through coordination with the authorities and agencies. Finally, developing, adopting and implementing a disaster preparedness plan for a hurricane disaster could be different from other disasters such as terrorism. Again, in case of a disaster, the federal authority uses its own mechanisms to reach out to the state, local authorities, as well as institutions. The mechanisms and guidelines are provided by the government to help avoid confusion in case of multi-agency disaster preparedness plan implementation.

Module 8: Personal responsibility, health information privacy, ethics, international collaboration

Although there are common goals and objectives to be pursued by all individuals and departments in Saint Leo University Hospital, every individual has his/her responsibilities to follow. Individual responsibilities are designed to ensure that the combined result from all the employees will help achieve the common goal that has been set for the hospital. Developing a disaster preparedness plan will attract individual responses. .

Developing a plan will require personal responsibilities in handling certain activities in a professional manner. It should be stressed that disaster preparedness trickles down to a personal level where an individual is required to enlighten himself/herself on how to deal with a hurricane disaster situation. Individuals should know the safe areas that they should go to, as well as where to seek shelters. Some shelters could be disastrous and thus could lead to the loss of people's lives. Therefore, a disaster preparedness plan should involve individual training. At least, there should be a provision for every individual to understand the kind of danger posed by hurricanes and how to avoid these dangers without being hurt or panicking. Individuals need to get involved in drills, as well and a constant reminder on their safety.

Another concept that influences the development, adoption and execution of a disaster preparedness plan is health information privacy. There are a number of laws in America, as well as professional guidelines that require that health officers should at all times reserve the health information of their patients unless the patient sanctions it to be made public. One such rule is the HIPAA Privacy Rule that regulates use and exposure of protected health information. The following rules force the hospital to develop a mechanism that will ensure that patients' data is not exposed, especially during the evacuation process. While developing the plan, Saint Leo University Hospital should have a well-outlined plan that will ensure security of the patients' files and other data materials so that the information is kept secret at all the times.

The medical practitioner ethical guidelines also bar them from releasing a patient's information unilaterally in case of the crises. All measures should be used for a proper transfer of patients to other safer facilities without necessarily having to give details to the non-concerned parties. Since the disaster preparedness plan is developed for a hospital set up, it is must that all the hospital and medic guidelines should be entrenched in it to avoid legal dilemmas or conflicts of interest. This would further call for inter-collaboration among all the concerned parties to ensure that patients' basic rights are observed and not threatened by the situation.

This would involve forming a technical team of hospital members from different departments with the purpose of evacuating patients with minimal disturbances or without threatening their lives. Data privacy is very important, and patients would like to see the privacy of their health conditions maintained. Sickness is a calamity that no one likes getting associated with. The tag of having to know that the public knows what a patient suffers from without his or her consent is disastrous and damaging to his / her health.

However, a disaster preparedness plan ought to always remind the medical practitioners to safely keep a patient's data. The non-medical personnel involved in the evacuation process should also be properly instructed on the need to adhere to the set guidelines in relation to patients' privacy. A patient's information is of great significance, and it is against the law to disclose it to other parties. Some people may feel unfairly exposed if their medical information is realized to the public without their consent. Such a situation could result in a court process or make patients believe that the hospital's information storage system is a failure and could not protect their private data.

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