Emergency Evacuation of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) During Disasters: A Systematic Literature Review

The evacuation of hospitals has special complications and sensitivities in terms of the presence of patients. Since infants are the youngest and most vulnerable patients in the hospital, the readiness of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to respond appropriately and evacuate at the time of disasters is very important. This article examines the emergency evacuation of neonatal intensive care units during disasters. The present systematic review was done based on the PRISMA guidelines for systematic review studies. Accordingly, all English-language articles published in this field were extracted by the end of January 2020, through searching Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct, as well as Google Scholar Web Search. The search and screen of the articles were conducted independently by the research team members, and the content of included articles was analyzed thematically. After the final evaluation, 11 articles were subjected to content analysis, which was divided into seven thematic categories: command, training and maneuver, manpower, communication, equipment, transportation, support. Considering that infants are the most vulnerable preparing the staff of the (NICU) along with providing them with specialized and technical support is suggested. By preparing and implementing response and preparedness plans, it is possible to prevent high complications and mortality among infants admitted to the hospital pre-disasters.