A review of health manager's experiences with challenges of aiding in Bam earthquake: A qualitative study

In December 2003 one of the most horrible earthquakes of the current century happened in the historical city of Bam. The crisis management was complex due to breadth of destruction. Hence، we decided to provide suggestions for improvement of crisis management in earthquake by recognizing challenges and managerial experiences. This is a qualitative study which was carried out using phenomenology approach. A purposeful sample of eleven participants who were top and middle managers at the time of earthquake، were interviewed. Issues such as informed consent، respecting anonymity of participants، information confidentiality، and right to give up the study were all considered. Van manen’s holistic and selective analysis method was applied for interviews analysis. Seventeen subthemes were identified regarding health management during earthquake beneath the following themes: concentrated decision making، structure of dispatched teams، resources، planning for crisis and communication among aid teams. No effective and efficient crisis management system to deal with disasters such as Bam earthquake، was devised before Bam earthquake. Irrecoverable damages were enforced to people، because of losing local management structures and irresponsibility at the due time. In sum، a proper structure for crisis management in earthquake should be developed relying on aiding experiences during Bam earth quake.