ABSTRACT
Background: One of the important aspects of hospital preparedness in disasters is implementing early warning system. In this study, the performance of this function was evaluated under the monitoring of disasters workgroup of the Ministry of Health [MOH] based on the national program of "hospitals preparedness in disasters" in Shahid Motahari Hospital
Materials and Methods: This is an interventional study, with a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design. This hospital was chosen by MOH as a benchmark for implementing the national disaster programs. The data collecting instrument was the hospital disaster preparedness checklist which evaluates 9 indexes of "command and control," "communications," "safety and security," "triage," "increasing capacity," "continuity of critical services," "human resources," "logistics and supply management," and "recovery after disasters." Data of pretest and posttest were analyzed through nonparametric Wilcoxon test, using SPSS software, version 16
Results: The preparedness score before the intervention was 134, which represents the moderate level of hospital preparedness. The evaluation before and after the intervention indicated that "recovery after disaster" and "triage" had the least change with an increase of one score and the index of "logistics and supply management" had the maximum increase by 5 scores. The overall score of preparedness significantly increased from 134 to 159 [P<0.05] after the intervention, which represents a change from moderate to high hospital preparedness
Conclusion: The preparedness of Shahid Motahari Hospital, which is the only specialized hospital of Tehran in burns, has significantly increased and reached a level of high preparedness to deal with disasters. This study indicates the importance of developing the activation of early warning system in hospitals for rapid and appropriate response to the disasters