Abstract
Objectives: In a changing climate, flood disaster may not only threaten the health of the population, but may also interfere with the function of its health providers. Few data are available about hospital evacuation in these situations. Therefore, this study evaluated the effects of the emergency evacuation of the Dresden Heart Centre in August, 2002, due to the flood disaster along the Elbe, on its 168 critically ill patients, i.e. the patients' perceptions and their psychological stress. Materials and methods: A retrospective survey was started 1 month after the evacuation (T1) and a prospective follow‐up study was carried out 6 months later (T2). The questionnaire consisted of a list of items related to the evacuation as well as standardized psychosocial tools – Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Posttraumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS‐10) and Impact of Event Scale (IES‐R). A module of the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID) was applied to validate post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In all, 147 patients were eligible for the study (conscious, non‐ventilated, adequate mental status). Results: A total of 111 patients (75.5%) returned the questionnaire at T1. Of those, 72 patients completed the study after 7 months (T2); 64 patients underwent the SCID. Patients were mainly satisfied and felt safe during the evacuation. However, only 47% of them agreed with the amount of information passed on to their relatives. Anxiety and depression showed no significant alteration. PTSD and avoidance behaviour showed a higher prevalence compared with the general population (8.7% vs 6.5%, p<0.05). No correlation with cardiac diagnoses was observed. Conclusion: Emergency hospital evacuation of patients with cardiac diseases during a natural disaster such as a flood can be done safely without risking a PTSD in most of the patients independent of the underlying cardiac diagnosis. The data indicate that lack of broad information, both to the patients and their relatives in this setting, may be a relevant cause and promoter of anxiety and PTSD. Therefore special focus should be given to personalized care to prevent such apprehensive reactions. Sufficient information on the medical and current status of affected patients should be provided to both patients and their relatives in similar situations.