Citation

Jahangiri K, Rostami N, Sahebi A. Adv J Emerg Med 2020; 4(1): e1.

Affiliation

Department of Health in Disasters and Emergencies, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Department of Emergency Medicine)

DOI

10.22114/ajem.v0i0.227

PMID

31938770

PMCID

PMC6955028

Abstract

As important infrastructures in every community, hospitals and healthcare centers are required to continue their operation during normal and disastrous situations and respond to the situation and provide services for the injured. In 2008, the hospital safety index (HSI) was proposed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for evaluating the safety of hospitals and healthcare facilities in potential hazardous situations. The hazards threatening these facilities can be identified using a checklist, and categorized as structural, non-structural and functional vulnerability while considering their likelihood of occurrence, frequency, harmful outcomes and numerical estimate of damage. In 2016, risk and safety assessments in disasters were performed in 280 healthcare centers affiliated to Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran, including 204 medical homes, 66 comprehensive urban and rural health centers and 10 district health centers. The present research was conducted using the hazard assessment guidelines developed by the Iranian Ministry of Health. The results revealed that geologic hazards, climatologic threats, epidemics and traffic accidents were respectively the most frequent hazards threatening healthcare centers in Ilam province. Moreover, the levels of the structural, non-structural and functional safety of the healthcare centers were respectively found to be 20.34%, 27.67% and 21.53%. The overall safety of the health centers was also estimated at 22.79%. In fact, the safety level received a score of 3 out of 10. Hatami et al. obtained a safety index of 4 out of 10, and found the level of functional safety to be 51.48%, that of structural safety 33.97%, that of non-structural safety 54.82% and that of overall safety 43.72%. Moreover, an evaluation of the safety level of Iranian health centers in the face of disasters in 2015 reported a functional safety level of 29%, a structural safety level of 36%, a non-structural safety level of 21% and an overall safety level of 29%. The safety levels of healthcare centers in Ilam province were therefore lower than those reported as the national mean safety indices. In addition, the present results were expressed through their root cause analysis. The unsatisfactory preparedness level of healthcare centers in Ilam province on a national scale based on the hazard assessment guidelines developed by the Ministry of Health can be attributed to the following factors ...

Language: en