Assessing hospital disaster preparedness in Shiraz, Iran 2011: teaching versus private hospitals

In disasters, hospitals play a crucial role in supplying essential medical care to the society but there is no standardized checklist for assessing hospital disaster preparedness.

The objective of this study was to recognize and compare almost all the components of disaster preparedness between teaching and private hospitals in Shiraz, Iran, focusing on incident command systems (ICS), communications, surge capacity, human resources, supply management, logistic service, case management, surveillance, laboratory and operating room management.

From May to August 2011, we assessed the preparedness of teaching and private hospitals in Shiraz, using the 10-key component World Health Organization checklist.

Twenty four out of 31 hospitals responded. The scores for preparedness of ICS, communication, surge capacity and human resources was 73.9 percent, 67.3 percent, 49 percent, and 52.6 percent respectively. The preparedness scores for supply management and logistic services were 68.5 percent and 61.8 percent. While the levels of preparedness of laboratory and operating room management were low, preparedness of the surveillance system and case management were 66.7 percent and 70.8 percent, respectively. The average total preparedness of all hospitals was 59.5 percent, with scores of 62.2 percent in teaching hospitals and 55 percent in private hospitals.

At the time of our study, the total preparedness among hospitals was at the intermediate level, but in some key components such as operating room management, surge capacity, and human resources, the total preparedness was very limited and at an early stage of development, therefore, requiring urgent attention and improvement.