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Zainab Omer¹, Omer Iftikhar Kahloon², Muhammad Hamza Khan³, Ammara Iqbal Muhammad⁴, Fatima Arshad¹ and Muhammad Jawed Iqbal⁵

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the existing internal disaster preparedness of tertiary care hospitals at Rawalpindi and provide viable recommendations for improvement.

Study Design: Cross sectional survey

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), MCE Campus, Islamabad from May 2019 to Aug 2019.

Materials and Methods: The study design is a cross sectional survey using quantitative measure of Hospital Safety Index (HIS) questionnaire developed by PAN WHO. Questionnaire was administered to five tertiary care hospitals based on convenient sampling technique, with data analysis being carried out using HSI calculator.

Results: Out of five hospitals, Military hospital secured the highest safety index of 0.92, whereas Holy Family hospital secured lowest with 0.41. While QIH, CMH and FFH were almost equal in the safety index. The vulnerability index showed similar trends in categorization. Four hospitals were categorized as category A hospital, while remaining as category B.

Conclusion: There is dire need to improve the overall disaster preparedness status of hospitals. The study provides an insight on importance of hospital preparedness enabling policy makers and stakeholders to plan appropriate interventions.  It is a starting point leading to awareness, discussion, concrete and sustained actions for both national and provincial policy makers.

Key Words: Internal Disaster, Hospital Preparedness, Tertiary care hospitals.

Citation of article: Omer Z, Kahloon OI, Khan MH, Muhammad AI, Arshad F, Iqbal MJ. Level of Hospital Preparedness for Internal Disasters in Tertiary Care Hospitals in Pakistan (Rawalpindi City). Med Forum 2023;34(1):37-42.