Hospital Disaster Resilience: a Conceptual Framework

Abstract

This article analyses the concept of hospital resilience to natural disasters (earthquakes, global warming, pandemics, and man-made disasters such as war, conflict and cyber-attacks) in the context of theoretical insights in scholarly articles on the concept of resilience, and elements of its perception and other aspects. The research conducted identified that the concept of a resilient hospital encompasses its ability to maintain functionality at minimal resource costs, and reduce the likelihood of shock in the event of various disasters. This capacity to withstand hazard can be of various types, for example, constructive, infrastructural or administrative. The following four elements are most commonly identified levels of resilience: context, disturbance, capacity to deal with disturbance, and reaction to disturbance. A resilient hospital maintains the following characteristics: rapidity, robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, awareness, diversity, self-regulation, unity and adaptiveness. A variety of means are used to amplify resilience to distinct disasters and it is relevant to manage different types of resilience, but the human factor is indisputably essential in this framework.