Crisis Management and Preparedness of Military Hospitals in Disasters

Crisis management is a systematic approach to prevent disaster, reduce harm, provide preparedness and response, and enforce recovery against disasters, while empowering organizations against such calamities. Due to the increasing number of disasters in the world and Existence of international documents, including Sendai Framework Disaster Risk Reduction is necessary when Crisis occur. Many people affected by disasters benefit from hospital services as the main healthcare organizations, so medical centers have to be prepared before, during, and after disasters to provide timely healthcare services. Meanwhile, plans for disaster preparedness and management strategies significantly reduce casualties. Because of the diversity of their missions, military hospitals in the Islamic Republic of Iran are one of the most important healthcare centers across the country as they have a special role in disasters. One of the missions of the armed forces in Iran is to provide assistance to the injured in the event of disasters with military facilities and healthcare resources. Hence, the armed forces’ healthcare system is among the first centers to provide healthcare services to the injured. The aim of this study was to explore the significance of crisis management and the need to prepare military hospitals in disasters according to international documents.

This paper is a review article that based on collecting data from library resources and databases Science Direct, PubMed, WHO, CRED, SID and the Google Scholar search engine in 2018 with keywords crisis management, disasters, and military hospitals.

review of the studies showed that Military hospitals were found not well prepared for all kinds of disasters and in need of developing infrastructure, crisis management and training programs, and disaster preparedness drills.

Discussion and Conclusion:

Managers at military hospitals should have a comprehensive and integrated understanding of crisis management. Then, comprehensive programs should be developed for managing all kinds of disasters and crises, and then these programs should be presented to empower and prepare the medical staff.