Hospital preparedness for major incidents and disasters in Thailand

Abstract

Abstract Background: A hospital should be safe and prepared to deliver health care during any disaster. One way to assess hospital preparedness is to use the World Health Organization’s Hospital Safety Index. Nevertheless, the tool is comprehensive and hence time and resource consuming. A new, universal self-assessment tool has been developed in Thailand. It is less comprehensive and aims to be used for strategic planning by the Ministry of Public Health. However, it has not been tested before. The aim of this study is to analyze the preparedness level in Phuket and Phang Nga regarding three modules of the tool: medical products and technology, service delivery and participation. Method: The tool was distributed to all 13 hospitals in Phuket and Phang Nga provinces. The number of Yes-answers in 60 items was summarized, converted into percentage and separated into three levels of preparedness; insufficient 0-59%, sufficient 60-79% and good 80-100%. The preparedness level was calculated for the three modules separately and as a total sum. The mean was compared between four hospital levels and between the two provinces. Furthermore, 14 key items were tested for correlation to preparedness percentage. Results: With a response rate of 85%, 36% of the hospitals had good preparedness level, 45% sufficient and 18% insufficient. The module with highest preparedness level was service delivery and the lowest was participation. No significant differences between hospital levels nor provinces were seen. No significant correlation between key items and preparedness percentage was found. Discussion and conclusion: Although this study revealed needs for further improvements, most of hospitals had good or sufficient preparedness with this tool. Our results are in concordance with previous studies and could hence reflect the state of preparedness in investigated hospitals. There is however a need for further studies with larger samples. Key words: Hospital preparedness, hospital assessment, hospital safety index, Thailand