Borst Robert A J, Abebe Yared Abayneh, van Vuuren Karin, Magana Julien, de Graaff Bert, Hinrichs-Krapels Saba, Kolen Bas, Pregnolato Maria, Schreijer Anja, Comes Tina, Jonkman Sebastiaan N, Bal Roland
Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000DR, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2025 May 14;23(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s12961-025-01338-4.
The 2021 European floods in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands significantly impacted healthcare. With climate change increasing flood risks, healthcare preparedness is essential. Floods affect healthcare directly and indirectly by disrupting patient access, damaging infrastructure and impeding care continuity. Our interdisciplinary research in the Netherlands systematically assesses flood impacts on healthcare, optimises disaster preparedness, patient logistics, and continuity and explores crisis governance, incorporating lessons from coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).
Our multi-sited, interdisciplinary project titled "Pandemic lessons for flood disaster preparedness" includes literature reviews on: (i) the (in) direct impacts of floods on healthcare, (ii) disaster decision-making strategies and (iii) patient logistics during crises. Empirically, ethnographic methods (interviews, focus groups, document analyses, and observations) will: (a) assess hospital flood preparedness, (b) explore decision-making and crisis management strategies and (c) analyse the dynamics of health system governance during floods. Data from these sources and flood scenarios will inform models on healthcare impacts and decision-making, culminating in a simulation game for research and training.
This study offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to understanding and improving healthcare system preparedness for floods. By integrating diverse fields such as healthcare governance, disaster risk management, logistics and hydraulic engineering, we provide a unique lens on resilience. A key strength is the incorporation of lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing us to draw parallels between pandemic response and flood preparedness. In addition, our simulation game serves as a robust tool for translating knowledge into practice. However, the study's reliance on collaboration with busy healthcare and disaster response professionals may limit engagement. Moreover, the absence of direct public and patient involvement in the research design, though partially mitigated by engaging representative organizations, presents a potential limitation. Lastly, the challenge of obtaining real-time data from flood events could introduce recall bias, but triangulation of various data sources aims to address this issue. Despite these challenges, the study's integration of long-term data from recent floods and focus on healthcare-specific crisis governance provides valuable insights for improving disaster preparedness.
2021年德国、比利时和荷兰发生的欧洲洪水对医疗保健产生了重大影响。随着气候变化增加洪水风险，医疗保健准备工作至关重要。洪水通过扰乱患者就医、破坏基础设施和阻碍护理连续性，直接和间接地影响医疗保健。我们在荷兰进行的跨学科研究系统地评估了洪水对医疗保健的影响，优化了灾难准备、患者后勤保障和连续性，并借鉴2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的经验教训探索危机治理。
我们的多地点跨学科项目“大流行对洪水灾难准备的启示”包括对以下方面的文献综述：（i）洪水对医疗保健的（非）直接影响，（ii）灾难决策策略，以及（iii）危机期间的患者后勤保障。在实证方面，人种学方法（访谈、焦点小组、文件分析和观察）将：（a）评估医院的洪水准备情况，（b）探索决策和危机管理策略，以及（c）分析洪水期间卫生系统治理的动态。来自这些来源的数据和洪水情景将为医疗保健影响和决策模型提供信息，最终形成一个用于研究和培训的模拟游戏。
本研究提供了一种全面的跨学科方法来理解和改善医疗保健系统对洪水的准备。通过整合医疗保健治理、灾害风险管理、物流和水利工程等不同领域，我们提供了一个关于复原力的独特视角。一个关键优势是纳入了COVID-19大流行的经验教训，使我们能够在大流行应对和洪水准备之间进行类比。此外，我们的模拟游戏是将知识转化为实践的有力工具。然而，该研究对与忙碌的医疗保健和灾难应对专业人员合作的依赖可能会限制参与度。此外，尽管通过与代表性组织合作部分缓解了这一问题，但研究设计中缺乏公众和患者的直接参与是一个潜在的限制。最后，从洪水事件中获取实时数据的挑战可能会引入回忆偏差，但对各种数据源的三角测量旨在解决这个问题。尽管存在这些挑战，但该研究整合了近期洪水的长期数据并专注于医疗保健特定的危机治理，为改善灾难准备提供了有价值的见解。
