Theme Hospital/Events

During the game, a number of events may come up which provide you with the chance to earn extra money and increase your reputation, or alternatively to reduce your reputation and cause problems in the hospital.

Earthquakes
Earthquakes happen every once in a while after the first few levels. Luckily earthquakes warn about themselves with a small tremble. When the big one hits, it damages your machines by adding to the number of times they have been used by a few. If this number exceeds the strength of a machine, it will explode.

Before an earthquake you should therefore examine all your equipment and replace the ones that whose "strength minus times used" is too low. You may not have enough time to get handymen to fix the equipment before the earthquake but you will need to do repairing afterwards.

In times of crisis, when you know an earthquake is about to strike but you are unsure if your machine(s) will explode, you can use the "Replace hardware" button to replace the machine. This costs a bit of money, determined by the value of the machine, but instantly repairs it along with restoring it's strength to the maximum. Do not be afraid to hire more handymen if you are having problems keeping your machines maintained. They have very low wages, and a late-game hospital can upkeep an army of them.

Emergency
From time to time a blue emergency light might pop up on the fax machine bar. When this occurs and you select it a message will come up saying an accident happened at (place) and (number) people have (condition). It will go on to say that you do/do not have the resources to handle this. If you don't think you can handle the emergency turn it down, as these people will count towards your death count but remember you can still send some of them home if you're running out of time and still have some to cure. A better doctor or nurse will improve the speed at which each patient is dealt with. With large numbers of patients, it may be necessary to construct another room of the same kind required for their treatment. There are usually big cash bonuses on offer if you successfully deal with an emergency. Kill someone however, and your reputation will go down.

Epidemic
When your hospital is hit by an epidemic, firstly remember what the disease is and then go around your hospital either moving people with it to the front of the queue. DO NOT LET ANY EPIDEMIC PATIENTS GO HOME. Shooting rats is supposed to reduce the chances of having an epidemic in the first place.

If an epidemic hits that you know you cannot handle, don't be afraid to send them all home. Nine times out of ten you will get away with it and get a cash bonus. These are much better odds than the automatic fail of not having the right facilities to deal with an epidemic. It is also a good idea to send the infected patients home if they still have lots of diagnosis pending, such as requiring a ward or numerous visits to the GP.

Just take note that as soon as you hit the "Go home" button on one of the infected patient's options, the health administrator will immediately start making his way to your hospital. You can successfully cover up an epidemic by making sure there are no traces of the epidemic inside your hospital - you can even have infected patients walking home but still within the map boundaries and the epidemic will not be detected.

VIP Visit
Occasionally a message may inform you that a VIP wishes to visit your hospital. In all but the worst hospitals you should agree as the visit (providing there are no major problems) should result in a reputation boost and bonus cash. A few fairly obvious tips to follow while a VIP is visiting are:


 * Keep the hospital warm. Make sure the heat's turned up and there are plenty of radiators.
 * Make sure there are no dead plants or rubbish around the hospital.
 * Keep the patients (as much as possible) happy with drinks machines etc.
 * Ensure that all machines are in good working order.
 * Cure as many patients as possible.

The above is advice you should be following anyway when running the hospital.