Natividad Hospital showed it is ready if a disaster strikes and wants you to be ready too.

Natividad hosted its first disaster preparedness fair last week. “When Disasters Happen…Having
It All Together,” was held in the parking lot outside the hospital’s Emergency Room and was open to the public. There were informational booths from agencies such as police, fire, sheriff, ambulance providers and the Red Cross. Also featured was the hospital’s disaster triage tent.

When a disaster strikes, we wouldn’t think about whether the local hospital would be prepared to assist those in need, we would expect it to be ready. Natividad takes that expectation to heart and actively participates in community wide disaster preparedness through the Monterey County Hospital Preparedness and more.

“Natividad has drilled for its ‘15 ’til 50’ program: 15 minutes until the ER gets 50 patients at once,”says Dr. Craig Walls, Natividad’s Chief Medical Officer. “When victims arrive at Natividad, they’d be triaged into one of three groups based on urgency: immediate, delayed and minor.”

We should all be able to sustain ourselves for at least 72 hours after a major disaster. If you would like to find out more about disaster preparedness and how to create your own preparedness kit, check out these websites:

The American Red Cross

Monterey County Office of Emergency Services