Preparedness of Iranian Hospitals Against Disasters

Context: Over the past decade the number of accidents and disasters has been growing around the world. In addition to damaging communities and infrastructures, unexpected disasters also affect service providers. This study aimed to evaluate the readiness of hospitals when confronted with unexpected disasters. Evidence Acquisition: The present study was a simple review article, which was conducted via searching different sites, such as:Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct and PubMed, using different key words such as: Disasters, Crisis, Hospital and preparedness.The relationship between the articles found in relation to our subject was investigated through the title and abstract of articles. The relationship between the articles, which were found in relation to our subject, was investigated through the title and abstract of the articles. Our search included papers published during the period between 2007 and 2015 and we only considered studies that measured the preparedness of hospitals in critical conditions. Among the 30 articles, which were found, 17 were excluded from the study due to lack of relevant data. Hence, 15 papers, which were of proper design and robust data analysis, were included in the current study. Results: Hospital preparedness in disaster was evaluated in three dimensions: structural, non-structural factors and vulnerability management performance. A total of readiness of hospitals in three dimensions was mediocre. Conclusions: Overall, the results derived from these studies indicated that hospital safety levels in most of the surveyed hospitals were moderate. Although the situation in hospitals is not critical, there is a need to plan and take appropriate measures to improve the safety level of the hospitals. Keywords: Disasters, Risk Assessment, Hospital Preparedness, Iranian Hospitals