Factors affecting the functional preparedness of hospitals in response to disasters: A systematic review

Introduction: The importance of hospitals preparedness is undeniable as the first crossroad of people in the health sector to reduce mortality and complications caused by disasters. Nevertheless, hospitals are usually unprepared to respond to disasters. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the factors affecting the functional preparedness of hospitals in response to disasters.Search Methods: This systematic review was performed using Mesh keywords in the Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, and PubMed databases and their Persian equivalents in SID and Elmnet databases, as well as a manual search of journals and Gray literature without time limit. Endnote x۹ software was used to screen the studies. The content analysis method was used to extract the data.Results: Out of ۲۸۰۷ articles, ۱۰۰ studies were eventually included in the final study. ۸۹ influential factors were extracted that classified into seven categories: coordination control and commanding (۸ factors); guidelines and preparedness plans (۱۶ factors); regulations (۶ factors); resource provision (۳۹ factors); education and training (۱۰ factors); multi-layered information management and communication systems (۷ factors), and contextual factors (۳ factors).Conclusion: Hospital preparedness for disasters has different aspects, each affected by several factors. The level of hospital preparedness is also affected by mentioned factors. Attention to these factors can be effective in improving the functional preparedness of hospitals against disasters.

کلیدواژه ها:

Functional preparedness ، Hospital ، Natural disasters ، Response ، Disaster medicine