Measuring Hospital Resilience in Emergency Situations and Examining the Knowledge and Attitude of Emergency Department Staff toward Disaster Management

Hospitals can play an important role during emergencies and disasters. Medical teams with other first-responder teams are the first ones who attend an emergency or disaster. This study aims to measure hospital resilience in emergency situations and to assess the knowledge and attitude of emergency department staff toward disaster management.

This cross-sectional study was divided into two parts. In the first, hospital disaster resilience was measured using a 58-item questionnaire. In the second part, knowledge levels and attitudes of 102 emergency department staff members towards emergency and disaster preparedness and management were assessed. Two types of self-reported questionnaires were used to assess the knowledge and attitude in hospital emergency preparedness and disaster management including knowledge test (11 items) and attitude test (6 items).

The scores of hospital disaster resilience for emergency command, communication and cooperation system, hospital disaster plans, emergency stockpiles and logistics management, and emergency staff domains indicate moderate levels of resilience for the domains. Among emergency staff, 18% had fair and 2% had poor knowledge about emergency and disaster preparedness and management. The findings suggested a positive attitude of staff members toward hospital disaster preparedness and management.

Considering the moderate levels of resilience for some domains of hospital disaster resilience and for increasing staff knowledge, disaster-training programs can lead to increased knowledge and skills of key personnel and better management of emergency and disaster.