Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of Crisis and Disaster Management in Irani-an Public Hospitals

Hospitals are faced different conditions for effective management of crises and disasters. The current study aimed to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from the viewpoints of the members of the disaster management committee (DMC) of Iran’s public hospitals.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018. The study population was Iranian public hospitals, of which 20 were randomly selected based on spatial planning. We interviewed members of DMC of 87 public hospitals. Data were collected using a 17-item researcher-made questionnaire that included two sections of individual variables, and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The questionnaire contained both open and closed-ended questions. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 23.

A total of 347 members were interviewed. In total, 3 524 items were extracted, which 784 (22.2%) were strength, 717 (20.3%) weakness, 344 (9.8%) opportunity, 649 (18.4%) threat, and 1030 (29.2%) solutions. There was a significant association between the city of work, years of experience as a committee member, the number of active beds, area of study, gender, age, occupation, type of hospital, and the total number of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and related solutions (P<0.05).

This study demonstrated that, concerning crisis and disaster management, Iranian public hospitals, while having strengths and opportunities, are faced several challenges and threats. Hence, there is a need to design and implement appropriate intervention programs.