Alruwaili Abdullah, Islam Md Shahidul, Usher Kim
University of New England School of Health, Armidale, NSW, Australia.
Emergency Medical Services, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2022 Jun;16(3):1038-1045. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2020.484. Epub 2021 Apr 5.
The current study was conducted to assess disaster preparedness of hospitals in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia.
A descriptive cross-sectional study of all hospitals in the Eastern Region of KSA was conducted between July 2017 and July 2018. The included hospitals were selected using convenience sampling. The questionnaire was distributed together with an official letter providing information about the aim and objectives of the study as well as ethical issues guiding their participation in the exercise.
All the included hospitals had a disaster plan that was completely accessible by all staff members. About 70% of the included hospitals established an educational program on disaster preparedness once per year. Assessment of hospital disaster preparedness was conducted using disaster drills in 62 (n= 98%) of the hospitals. However, only 9.5% of the hospitals had post-disaster recovery assistance programs like counseling and support services.
Most hospitals involved in this study had sufficient resources for disaster management; however, the overall effectiveness of hospitals' disaster preparedness was slight to moderate. Some recommendations to improve hospitals' disaster preparedness should be proposed, including improved staff training and testing, better communications and safety procedures, and adoption of a holistic approach for disaster management.
开展本研究以评估沙特阿拉伯东部地区医院的灾难准备情况。
2017年7月至2018年7月对沙特阿拉伯王国东部地区的所有医院进行了描述性横断面研究。纳入的医院采用便利抽样法选取。问卷与一封官方信件一同发放，该信件提供了有关研究目的以及指导其参与此项工作的伦理问题的信息。
所有纳入的医院都有一份所有工作人员均可完全获取的灾难计划。约70%的纳入医院每年开展一次灾难准备教育项目。62家（n = 98%）医院通过灾难演练对医院灾难准备情况进行了评估。然而，只有9.5%的医院设有灾后恢复援助项目，如咨询和支持服务。
参与本研究的大多数医院具备足够的灾难管理资源；然而，医院灾难准备的总体有效性为轻度至中度。应提出一些改善医院灾难准备的建议，包括加强工作人员培训和测试、改善通信和安全程序以及采用整体灾难管理方法。
