Facilitators and obstacles in pre-hospital medical response to earthquakes: a qualitative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Earthquakes are renowned as being amongst the most dangerous and destructive types of natural disasters. Iran, a developing country in Asia, is prone to earthquakes and is ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in this respect. The medical response in disasters is accompanied by managerial, logistic, technical, and medical challenges being also the case in the Bam earthquake in Iran. Our objective was to explore the medical response to the Bam earthquake with specific emphasis on pre-hospital medical management during the first days.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was performed in 2008; an interview based qualitative study using content analysis. We conducted nineteen interviews with experts and managers responsible for responding to the Bam earthquake, including pre-hospital emergency medical services, the Red Crescent, and Universities of Medical Sciences. The selection of participants was determined by using a purposeful sampling method. Sample size was given by data saturation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The pre-hospital medical service was divided into three categories; triage, emergency medical care and transportation, each category in turn was identified into facilitators and obstacles. The obstacles identified were absence of a structured disaster plan, absence of standardized medical teams, and shortage of resources. The army and skilled medical volunteers were identified as facilitators.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The most compelling, and at the same time amenable obstacle, was the lack of a disaster management plan. It was evident that implementing a comprehensive plan would not only save lives but decrease suffering and enable an effective praxis of the available resources at pre-hospital and hospital levels.</p

Hospital incident command system (HICS) performance in Iran; decision making during disasters

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hospitals are cornerstones for health care in a community and must continue to function in the face of a disaster. The Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) is a method by which the hospital operates when an emergency is declared. Hospitals are often ill equipped to evaluate the strengths and vulnerabilities of their own management systems before the occurrence of an actual disaster. The main objective of this study was to measure the decision making performance according to HICS job actions sheets using tabletop exercises.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This observational study was conducted between May 1st 2008 and August 31st 2009. Twenty three Iranian hospitals were included. A tabletop exercise was developed for each hospital which in turn was based on the highest probable risk. The job action sheets of the HICS were used as measurements of performance. Each indicator was considered as 1, 2 or 3 in accordance with the HICS. Fair performance was determined as < 40%; intermediate as 41-70%; high as 71-100% of the maximum score of 192. Descriptive statistics, T-test, and Univariate Analysis of Variance were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>None of the participating hospitals had a hospital disaster management plan. The performance according to HICS was intermediate for 83% (n = 19) of the participating hospitals. No hospital had a high level of performance. The performance level for the individual sections was intermediate or fair, except for the logistic and finance sections which demonstrated a higher level of performance. The public hospitals had overall higher performances than university hospitals (P = 0.04).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The decision making performance in the Iranian hospitals, as measured during table top exercises and using the indicators proposed by HICS was intermediate to poor. In addition, this study demonstrates that the HICS job action sheets can be used as a template for measuring the hospital response. Simulations can be used to assess preparedness, but the correlation with outcome remains to be studied.</p

A fundamental, national, medical disaster management plan : an education-based model

During disasters, especially earthquakes, health systems are expected to play an essential role in reducing mortality and morbidity. The most significant naturally occurring disaster in Iran is earthquakes; they have killed >180,000 people in the last 90 years. According to the current plan in 2007, the disaster management system of Iran is composed of three main work groups: (1) Prevention and risk management, (2) Education, and (3) Operation. This organizational separation has resulted in lack of necessary training programs for experts of specialized organizations, e.g., the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME). The National Board of MOHME arranged a training program in the field of medical disaster management. A qualified training team was chosen to conduct this program in each collaborating center, based on a predefined schedule. All collaborating centers were asked to recall 5–7 experts from each member university. Working in medical disaster management field for ≥2 years was an inclusion criterion. The training programs lasted three days, consisted of all relevant aspects of medical disaster management, and were conducted over a six-month period (November 2007–April 2008). Pretest and post-tests were used to examine the participants’ knowledge regarding disaster management; the mean score on the pre-test was 67.1 ±11.6 and 88.1 ±6.2, respectively. All participants were asked to hold the same training course for their organizations in order to enhance knowledge of related managers, stakeholders, and workers, and build capacity at the local and provincial levels. The next step was supposed to be developing a comprehensive medical disaster management plan in the entire country. Establishing nine disaster management regional collaborating centers in the health system of Iran has provided an appropriate base for related programs to be rapidly and easily accomplished throughout the country. This tree-shaped model is recommended as a cost-benefit and rapid approach for conducting training programs and developing a disaster management plan in the health system of a developing countryNonePublishe

Evaluation of a new community-based curriculum in disaster medicine for undergraduates

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, many medical schools include training in disaster medicine in undergraduate studies. This study evaluated the efficacy of a disaster medicine curriculum recently designed for Saudi Arabian medical students. METHODS: Participants were 15 male and 14 female students in their fourth, fifth or sixth year at Jazan University Medical School, Saudi Arabia. The course was held at the Research Center in Emergency and Disaster Medicine and Computer Sciences Applied to the Medical Practice in Novara, Italy. RESULTS: The overall mean score on a test given before the course was 41.0 % and it increased to 67.7 % on the post-test (Wilcoxon test for paired samples: z = 4.71, p < 0.0001). There were no significant differences between the mean scores of males and females, or between students in their fourth, fifth or sixth year of medical school. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that this curriculum is effective for teaching disaster medicine to undergraduate medical students. Adoption of this course would help to increase the human resources available for dealing with disaster situations

Evaluation of Disaster Preparedness Based on Simulation Exercises : A Comparison of Two Models

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to highlight 2 models, the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) and the Disaster Management Indicator model (DiMI), for evaluating the in-hospital management of a disaster situation through simulation exercises. METHODS: Two disaster exercises, A and B, with similar scenarios were performed. Both exercises were evaluated with regard to actions, processes, and structures. After the exercises, the results were calculated and compared. RESULTS: In exercise A the HICS model indicated that 32% of the required positions for the immediate phase were taken under consideration with an average performance of 70%. For exercise B, the corresponding scores were 42% and 68%, respectively. According to the DiMI model, the results for exercise A were a score of 68% for management processes and 63% for management structure (staff skills). In B the results were 77% and 86%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Both models demonstrated acceptable results in relation to previous studies. More research in this area is needed to validate which of these methods best evaluates disaster preparedness based on simulation exercises or whether the methods are complementary and should therefore be used together

Proposal for a community-based disaster management curriculum for medical school undergraduates in Saudi Arabia

Health professional preparedness is a key element of disaster response; overall there is a need for increased disaster medicine training worldwide. The objective of this study was to design and develop a curriculum in community-based disaster medicine for Saudi Arabian medical undergraduates