Hospital planning for weapons of mass destruction incidents

As terrorist attacks increase in fre-quency, hospital disaster plans need to be scrutinized to ensure that they take into account issues unique to weapons of mass destruction. This paper reports a review of the literature addressing hospital experiences with such incidents and the planning lessons thus learned. Construction of hos-pital disaster plans is examined as an ongoing process guided by the disaster planning committee. A review is completed of six special elements of weapons of mass destruction incidents that should be addressed in hospital disaster plans. The paper closes with a dis-cussion of the importance of train-ing and exercises in maintaining and improving the disaster plan.