General hospital preparedness in facing flood disasters

Abstract

Hospitals had a very important function in disaster management, especially in providing health services to reduce the suffering of disaster victims in the form of deceases and injuries. Hospital preparedness in facing disasters was contained in the Hospital Disaster Plan which was prepared based on the Safe Hospital Framework [1], and the Hospital Safety Index[2]. The purpose of this study was to analyze the preparedness of Aceh Tamiang General Hospital in facing flood disasters from 4 (four) aspects or evaluation modules namely, Hazard Affecting, Structural Safety, Non-Structural Safety, Emergency and Disaster Management, specifically analyzing the aspect of “Emergency and Disaster Management” according to the research focus namely, hospital policies, human resources preparedness and hospital infrastructure readiness in facing flood disasters. The research methodology was qualitative with a phenomenological design by 7 (seven) informants. The results of the study showed that the policies of the hospital leadership had been good, with the existence of a Leadership Decree concerning the Formation of a Hospital Disaster Management Team, since 2019 ago. However, there were still hospital personnel who did not know about the organizational structures, goals and functions as team members. Many hospital health workers could not go to work because their homes and access to the hospital were flooded. Besides that, hospital infrastructure, especially motorized vehicles such as ambulances and other operational vehicles, could not operate due to flood conditions that reached up to 1 meter. Therefore it was suggested that the socialization of the Disaster Management Team and Disaster Management Simulation should be carried out periodically, for example, twice a year. It should be suggested that the hospital proposed procuring an ambulance with certain specifications and a rescue boat, so that it could break through the floods that occur almost every year.