A hospital's operating modes can be divided into three main levels of operation: routine, mass-casualty, and interim states that require procedures and resources beyond the routine capacity.Regardless of the nature of the event and the needs, the medical staff has to be prepared for a sudden increase in demand for service that could overwhelm the functional capacity and safety standards of the hospital.In any sort of an emergency event, the hospital has to fulfill two goals: First is to be able to sustain itself against the sudden rise in demand for medical support; the aid given depends on the nature of the disaster. The second goal is to continue supporting the essential routine duties for patients already hospitalized and for others arriving at the hospital regardless of the disaster.The aim of this paper is to describe the principles and the methods for hospital operation in case of a disaster-level event. The paper describes the structure and methods for handling prolonged disaster-level events and the adjustments that can be made in the case of lower intensity events.
Keywords: decision making; disaster medicine; disaster planning; emergency preparedness; military medicine; organizational mechanism.