Health in Emergencies and Disasters Quarterly
Volume:5 Issue: 4, Summer 2020

Rising trend of emergencies and disasters in the world has caused a lot of damage to the health care facility infrastructures. This has led the health needs of the affected population to be the first and most requirement in emergencies and disasters. In most countries for the timely and appropriate response to the health needs of the affected areas, structured and organized teams are formed. Given the frequent occurrence of events in Iran and the adverse effects of emergencies and disasters on the community health, this study aimed to investigate the obstacles and challenges associated with the organization and preparation of Iran’s Emergencies and Disasters Medical Response Teams (EDMRT).

In this study, a qualitative approach with a content analysis method was used to explore and extract the obstacles and challenges of the medical response teams in the field of organization and preparation. Data collection was done through 18 in-depth, unstructured, and semi-structured interviews with 16 experts and experienced people who were purposefully selected. Besides the interview, field visits and related reports were used to confirm or reject the findings. Data analysis was done by the qualitative approach recommended by Graneheim.

The obstacles and challenges associated with the organization and preparation of teams were obtained under 1 theme, 2 categories, and 10 subcategories. The main theme was “team management”. The categories included unorganized groups and frangible readiness. Concepts of the team; unknown structure, lack of effective leadership/command, poor supervision of proctor organization, membership; complex process, heterogeneous composition are the sub-categories related to the first category. And concepts of local level; disable to establishment a team; disaster medicine, unfamiliar concept; lack of air care team; dependence versus self-sufficiency; non-systematically support; and inappropriate location of deployment are the sub-categories of the second category

The results of the study show that the current structures for medical response in emergencies and disasters have numerous challenges in terms of organization and preparedness. This defect harms the performance and effectiveness of medical response teams and an obstacle to the overall policy of reducing damages in disasters. The present study illustrates the need to review and refine the organization and preparedness processes associated with the current structure of medical response teams in emergencies and disasters. Of course, it is recommended that a more comprehensive study be conducted to identify and address the other areas of influence in these teams, such as legal considerations, health and safety, and related security issues.

Disasters and emergencies are always among the major challenges and problems facing societies. By proper education and preparedness promotion for households, the effects of disasters and emergencies can be reduced. This study was performed to provide disaster assessment and education guidelines in western regions of Tehran Province in 2018. 

This was a cross-sectional study. For data collection, the “Disaster Assessment and Education Guidelines” provided by the Ministry of Health was used. The forms and checklists were compiled by experts of urban and rural health centers. Then, the level of household preparedness for disaster was evaluated.

Based on the present study in 314 centers covered, 1726803 households were evaluated. In the northwest and west Tehran health centers, Shahryar, Malard, Qods, Robat Karim, and Baharestan and all of the regions, the levels of preparedness were estimated 34.9, 24.7, 31.3, 36.2, 21.9, 24.6, 12.3, and 26.9, respectively. 

The city of Tehran is located on important faults and areas prone to floods. So Tehran is highly vulnerable to natural disasters. Because of the important role of the people and the community-based management of disasters, household readiness must be improved to reduce the burden of death, injuries, and other disastrous consequences.

In an earthquake situation, medical response communities such as field and referral hospitals are challenged with injured victims’ identification and tracking. 

In our project, a patient tracking platform (PTP) was developed where first responders triage the patients with an electronic tag that report the location and some information of each patient during his/her movement. This platform includes: 1) Near Field Communication (NFC) tags (ISO 14443), 2) Smart mobile phones (Android-based version 4.2.2), 3) Base station laptops (Windows), 4) Server software, 5) Android software to use by first responders, 5) Disaster Command software, and 6) System Architecture. 

Our model has been completed through literature review, Delphi technique, focus group, design the platform, and implementation in an earthquake exercise. Test and evaluation of PTP platform were done collaborating with Red Cross staff successfully. 

It is demonstrated the robustness of the patient tracking platform (PTP) in tracking six patients in a simulated earthquake situation in the yard of the relief and rescue department of Isfahan’s Red Crescent.

During traffic accidents, professional staff provide care to the patient at the scene of the accident and then transport the victim to the hospital by ambulance. But sometimes this transition is carried out by relatives and laypeople. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors affecting people’s involvement and transmission of the victims of the traffic accident. 

This study was done with a qualitative content analysis method in 2018. The study participants were 16 people. In this study, a purposeful sampling method with maximum diversity was used. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data using guiding questions. To observe the research ethics, the researcher, after obtaining permission from the University Ethics Committee, conducted interviews (IR.USWR.REC.1395.399).

In total, 15 spinal cord injury victims and their relatives or laypeople and medical emergency technicians were interviewed. The class of wrong belief of delay was the main class in all interviews. Concepts such as past experiences, the pressure time, the lack of emergency time, cultural beliefs, and the tension explaining the wrong belief concept.

Wrong belief of delay was a concept that was extracted from the present study. It is recommended that the scene of the accident be examined in-depth and how to create a spinal cord injury in the injured with a grounded theory approach.

Every year many people are killed or injured in road accidents. The first step in planning to reduce accidents is to identify the causes of accidents. This study aimed to investigate and identify the causes and factors affecting the incidence and the severity of road accidents as a major issue in Ilam Province, Iran.

This research is a descriptive study with an analytical approach. Descriptive and inferential statistics indices were used for statistical analysis. A researcher-made questionnaire as fieldwork was used to investigate the factors affecting accidents. Friedman test was used in the analytical study of the data obtained from the questionnaires. The study population included all drivers of the public suburban fleet, including taxis, minibusses, and buses on the Ilam Province. Out of 190 drivers, a sample size of 127 was selected using a Cochran formula.

From the drivers’ point of view, the main causes of public fleet accidents on the roads of Ilam Province are the quality and technical issues of the roads. Interviewees believed that dangerous turns, low width, poor road quality, and inadequate traffic signs are the main causes of accidents. After that, human factors are in the second place, including high speed and overturning, left-sway, and unmanageable rush, emphasizing the two factors of high speed and overtaking. The technical and qualitative factors of the vessels are in third place. Finally, the environmental and natural factors are in fourth place.

Because the drivers consider the quality and technical issues of the roads as the main causes of traffic accidents in the transportation axes of Ilam Province, it is necessary to review and repair these transportation axes.

Earthquakes are among the most natural catastrophic disasters. Adults’ response to disasters largely depends on their physical health, mobility, self-efficacy, resource, and income level. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between self-efficacy with spiritual adjustment and life expectancy in earthquake-stricken adults living in Sarpol-e Zahab City, Iran.

The present study is a descriptive-analytical study that was done on 135 earthquake-stricken adults in Sarpol-e Zahab City. The study data were collected using the Scherer general self-efficacy questionnaire, Herth’s life expectancy questionnaire, spiritual adjustment, and demographic data in Spring 1998. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS version 24 and descriptive and inferential statistics.

In this study, 135 adults were enrolled, 65.2% were men and the rest were women. The Mean±SD age of the samples was 41.64±11.49 years. The Mean±SD values of self-efficacy, spiritual adjustment, and life expectancy were 55.64±10.29, 150.47±35.17, and  28.44±5.75, respectively. There was a significant and positive correlation between self-efficacy and spiritual adjustment. There was a positive and significant relationship between self-efficacy and life expectancy as well as life expectancy and spiritual adjustment.

The findings of the present study showed a high correlation between self-efficacy, life expectancy, and spiritual adjustment. People with high spiritual well-being and life expectancy are more adaptable to their problems; accordingly, their reinforcement of spiritual well-being and life expectancy increases their adaptability to the situation. Therefore, it is recommended that educational programs be developed to increase the self-efficacy of earthquake-affected individuals and increase their life expectancy and spiritual well-being.

While the main concern of Iran has been the risk of drought, and the Iranian authorities are always trying to find the solutions and prepare projects for the supply of their citizenschr('39') water, this country suddenly experienced a massive flood that affected more than 31 provinces in 2019. This study was conducted to extract lessons learned from the health system response and management of Iran in the 2019 floods. 

This report was designed and implemented using a multi-method model with both quantitative and qualitative methods. 

In this year, more than 42 million Iranian citizens were affected by the flood. The medical centers provided services for more than 1137000 people. Also, 85 people died and 19 outbreaks were identified in the flooded areas. 

Preventing flood victims to have access to humanitarian help and illegal measures concerning international cooperation seems to be immoral and at least sanctions should not be included in helping people in disasters, especially the health system is considered. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of ability to predict climate change, and it is necessary to focus on this issue. the “all-hazards” approach should be taken into consideration for the effective management of these incidents.