Hospitals Safety versus Disasters in north eastern of Iran: The Results of 42 Hospitals assessment

Iran is exposed to a variety of natural and man-made disasters. Disasters impose considerable damages to the population and infrastructure including hospitals. In both developing and developed countries, hospital safety versus disasters is a challenge because the hospitals must be able to continue their functions during disasters. To assessment of hospital safety for disasters, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed the Hospital Safety Index (HSI) that is a rapid, reliable and low-cost tool. This study presents the results of the disaster safety assessment in hospitals of razavi khorasan province in 2015.We applied adapted version of HIS (FHSI) and self-assessment approach to assess the disaster safety in 42 hospitals. This tool is consist of 145 items categorized in 3 components, including structural, non-structural and functional dimensions. Safety level was categorized into 3 levels in each item: not safe (0), average safe (1) and high safe (2). Hospitals were classified to three safety classes according to their total score: low(≤34.0), average (34. 1- 66.0) and high (> 66.0) safety. In this study, we assessed 26 teaching hospitals and 16 private hospitals. Our studyshowed that the overall disaster safety score of the khorasan’s hospitals was 60.2 out of 100. Average safety scores out of 100 were 52.8 for functional capacity, 52.9 for nonstructural component and 67.6 for structural component in our hospitals. There has been statistically significant differences between teaching and private hospitals in structural, non-structural and functional dimensions. (p value <0.05( To enhance the hospital safety for disaster, we require multi-disciplinary collaboration and a commitment from high levels of authorities. For attaining this purpose, werecommend: 1) establishment of a national committee for hospital safety in disasters; 2) supervision on proper implementation of the safety standards 3) enhancement of readiness of hospital

Keywords:

Hospital , safety , disaster , emergency , Iran