Evaluation of management performance and emergency preparedness of road hospitals in crisis situations (Case study of Shahid Motahari Hospital in Fooladshahr)

Hospitals, especially their emergency departments, are among the first health systems affected by accidents and disasters. Because of its nature and obligation to provide the highest quality services, this department should have protocols for coordination and interaction with other departments and be fully prepared in critical situations. This study aims to evaluate the disaster preparedness of the Emergency Department of Shahid Motahari Hospital in Isfahan Province, Iran. 

This research is an applied descriptive study conducted in Shahid Motahari Hospital in Fooladshahr City, Isfahan Province, Iran. The study data were collected using the Persian version of the World Health Organization’s Hospital Emergency Response Checklist completed through interview and document analysis. The checklist consists of 90 items and 9 domains, including command and control (7 items), communications (9 items), safety and security (11 items), triage (10 items), surge capacity (13 items), continuity of essential services (8 items), human resources (15 items), logistics and supply management (10 items) and post-disaster recovery (7 items). The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive statistics over 4 months.

The disaster preparedness of the Emergency Department of the Hospital was poor in the human resources domain and good in the communication domain.

The disaster preparedness of the study hospital is at a moderate level. Planning and implementation of practical measures such as holding crisis management courses, establishing a crisis management team, estimating necessary resources, changing the structure, providing human resources for more accurate control and ease of service delivery, maintaining and rapid repairing of equipment, timely triage, and retrofitting hospitals can play an effective role in improving the disaster preparedness of the study emergency department.