Assessing hamedan hospitals disaster preparedness

Abstract

Background: Hospitals play a critical role in national and local responses to emergencies and whose preparedness and offering on-time services play a vital role in the reduction of injuries and death. Aims: This study aimed to determine the hospital disaster preparedness in Hamedan. Materials and Methods: The research has been descriptive-analytic type performed by a cross-sectional study in 2015. The research community contained all hospitals of Hamedan, and the data were collected through a questionnaire containing 33 questions and evaluating list containing 129 specialized questions through interview and the documents about the preparedness of the hospitals. The data analysis was performed using the SPSS version 19, and the findings were shown through diagrams and tables. Results: According to the results, 33% of hospitals were teaching hospitals and 67% were therapeutic. Preparedness average of programing support for vital services was 88.23%, for natural disaster management programs in hospital was 82.77%, for programing for environmental health activities against disasters was 65.83%, for security of equipment and hazardous material was 56.10%, for programing for reduction in structural dangers was 52.50%, for evacuation and field treatment was 32.27%, and average score for hospital education planning to deal with disasters was 78.14%. Province hospitals with 67.64 ± 9.84 averages attained medium level against disasters. Conclusions: Since the disasters are really destructive and affect the health and treatment systems, their effects remain for a long period, and by taking into account that the preparedness rate of the hospitals of the province is middling, paying more attention to the hospitals in the field of preparedness against disasters is mandatory.