Investigating Fire Protection Condition in the Units of Imam Khomeini Hospital Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Various studies indicate that in many cases, fire has broken out in hospitals. Objectives: This study aims to assess fire protection in the selected units of Imam Khomeini hospital located in Tehran, Iran in 2020. Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, first, a researcher-made checklist was developed for the data collection by valid scientific resources (CVI=0.90 and CVR>0.62). After revising and the final confirmation of reliability, the checklist was separately completed by two members of the risk management committee in 22 units of Imam Khomeini hospital, Tehran, Iran. Cronbach’s weighted Kappa statistical test was calculated. Results: The domain of Ability and Capability of Fire Prevention was 66.1%; the domain of Responsiveness was 65.1%, and the domain of Urgent Evacuation Ability was 27.3%. In the domain of Responsiveness, the highest scores were relevant to accessing fire extinguishers cylinder in the units (95.5%) and holding fire extinguishing practice courses, and doing seasonal practices with that region’s fire station (90.9% for both). The highest scores in the domain of Urgent Evacuation Ability were assigned to accessing adequate ambulances to evacuate patients (90.9%) and mapping the units as well as determining patient evacuation routes when a fire breaks out (72.7%). Conclusion: The essential protection measures should be taken in order to improve the hospitals’ fire protection by better access to the exits, increasing the number of the exits and standardizing the emergency exits, enhancing the due fire extinguishing practices and hospital evacuation as well as training the staff.