The study of affiliated hospitals preparedness to University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences for unexpected disasters in 2011

Disasters caused 3 million deaths and involved 800 million people in the world during the last 20 years. Disasters cost over 500 billion dollars economically. Iran is one of the 10 most disaster-prone countries in the world based on United Nations table. There is a high incidence of natural disasters due to special geographic conditions, locating in earthquake faults, and flood-prone areas of Tehran. Since, hospitals as the most important healthcare systems should be prepared before disasters; this study was done in order to study the affiliated hospitals preparedness to University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (Razi and Rofideh hospitals) for unexpected disasters. In this descriptive-analytical study, data was collected by using self administrated questionnaire in order to assess preparedness dimensions of both hospitals (Rofideh & Razi) dealing with unexpected disasters in 2010. The questionnaire had two parts: the first part was about hospital public specifications and the second part was related to study about the hospital preparedness in unexpected disasters. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. According to findings, the preparedness of Rofideh hospital was very low (12/142) and Razi hospital was average (84/142) in unexpected disasters. However, these results showed inadequate preparedness for disasters. It seems necessary to design and perform an organized preparedness plan for disasters due to disaster-prone of Tehran province, the importance of hospital's role in control of unexpected disasters and the necessity of planning and practical measurements such as teaching, human resources, equipment, structure, cooperation, financial budget, map dividing and code group. So, paying attention to the results and suggested strategies would be useful in order to design a preparedness plan for disasters.