Disaster preparedness for earthquakes in hemodialysis units in Gyeongju and Pohang, South Korea

Yoo, Kyung Don; Kim, Hyo Jin; Kim, Yunmi; Park, Jae Yoon; Shin, Sung Joon; Han, Seung Hyeok; Kim, Dong Ki; Lim, Chun Soo; Kim, Yon Su

In this review, we suggest logistics for massive disasters and a safety management plan in the Korean hemodialysis unit, as shown in Fig. 1 . The local HD unit staff should understand the damage status of the institute to prepare for water system failure and power outage in a massive disaster situation. Role-playing should be discussed in HD facilities before a disaster occurs (Fig. 1 ). A regional coordination HD unit should be selected in advance. In disaster situations, the regional coordination HD unit must play a key role in patient evacuation and contact available HD units to ask for urgent help to provide dialysis treatment. A head coordination HD unit is required for regional response, and the head coordination HD unit should maintain its surge capacity to support dialysisassociated materials and human resources for emergent situations (Fig. 1) . At the local and national government levels, as well as at the level of each HD unit, long-term preparations should be made for renal disaster. A subsidy or government incentive would be helpful for establishing standards to prepare for power outages, such as an UPS system or a back-up generator. Due to the increased amount of equipment needed, increased cost is inevitable. The nephrology society, dialysis system manufacturers, and dialysis patients must recognize the hospital management department, which places the highest priority on patient safety. Government efforts should also focus on global cooperation with the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) in massive disaster situations. Since the Armenian earthquake in 1988, the Renal Disaster Relief Task Force (RDRTF) of ISN was launched to support nephrologic management for early dialysis treatment for acute kidney injury in areas of mass disaster [33] . Government efforts are needed to aid international cooperation in massive disaster situations.