Factors Affecting the Functional Preparedness of Hospitals in Response to Disasters: A Systematic Review

This study aimed to comprehensively determine the factors that affect the hospitals’ functionalpreparedness in response to disasters.

A systematic review of studies published in English and Persian up to the end of 2022 was performedby searching PubMed Central, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, SID, and Elmnet databases. Articles thatassessed hospitals’ functional preparedness were searched by using a combination of medical subject headingterms and keywords including disaster, emergency, preparedness, hospital preparedness, health care facilitiespreparedness, hospital functional preparedness, health care facilities functional preparedness, readiness, andeffective factors. Additionally, journals and gray literature were manually searched. Two independent reviewersscreened the eligible papers. The inclusion criteria were the full text should be published up to the end of 2022,in both Persian and English, and focus on hospital preparedness. The extracted data were manually analyzed,summarized, and reported using the content analysis method.

Of the 3465 articles, 105 studies were eventually included in the final analysis. Eighty-two influentialfactors were identified and classified into seven categories: government, coordination, control, and commanding(7 factors), existing guidelines and preparedness plans (12 factors), regulations (6 factors), supplying of resources(37 factors), education and training (8 factors), multi-layered information management and communicationsystems (8 factors), and contextual factors (4 factors).

There are different dimensions of hospital preparedness for disasters, each of which is influencedby several independent factors. Addressing these factors will enhance the actual functional preparedness ofhospitals encountering disasters.