Assessment of pandemic (COVID-19) preparedness in a teaching hospital in northern India using available (CDC-Atlanta) checklist

Abstract

Background: Hospitals are at the forefront of dealing infectious public health emergencies. Recently, COVID-19 has been declared as pandemic by the World Health Organization. Dealing with COVID-19 pandemic requires high intensity of administrative activity. Objective: We conducted this study to assess and compare, objectively, hospital preparedness with available Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standards. Methods: CDC has issued checklist for the assessment of hospital preparedness for COVID-19 pandemic, globally. This list contains 10 elements with sub-sections. We objectified the same and scored the hospital preparations accordingly. Various financial efforts made by the hospital to procure COVID19-specified items was also recorded. Results: As per the CDC checklist, the hospital scored 197 points (72.06%) out of 270 points with highest points in element two and eight. Element two is for the development for written COVID-19 plan. Element eight consists of addressing the occupational health of healthcare workers. Lowest scoring was in the element seven represented visitor access and movement within facility. During the study period, the hospital procured items of approximately 55 lakhs. In the study period, doctors, nursing staff, housekeeping staff, and security staff were channelized for doing COVID-19 duties. Conclusions: We obtained a score above 70% (good) which is quite encouraging, and we concluded that pandemic preparations in hospitals are necessary and it can be assessed objectively against prevailing standards. It is important in poor countries like India where spending on healthcare is minimal compared to other countries. Additionally, this assessment can be used to guide us further changes in policies and identifying the gaps in pandemic preparedness in hospitals which require special attention.

Investigating the level of functional preparedness of selected Tehran hospitals in the face of biological events: a focus on COVID-19

“…Identifying and introducing the information cascade team to personnel and key individuals are emphasized in the discussion of “early warning,” as is determining the specific code of biological threats, identifying the process of confirming emergency operation center news and announcing new cases of the disease and the activation of HICS (through Systematic EEP, 2019; Sheikhbardsiri et al , 2018). In response planning and case management, early detection, warning and reporting of suspicious cases are critical.…”

“…In India, hospital preparedness during the COVID-19 pandemic assessed with available centre of disease control and prevention standards. In this survey, the programs, care processes and specific facilities required to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated (Singh et al, 2021).…”

Assessing the Preparedness of Hospitals in Ardabil Province During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In the study of Labib et al, which examined the preparedness of special wards in Egyptian hospitals, the mean preparedness score was 54%, which showed that the preparedness was moderate [19]. In the study by Singh et al, which examined the preparedness of a teaching hospital in northern India, the mean score in the areas of preparation against the COVID-19 pandemic was 72.96% [21].…”

“…In the study of Labib et al, the highest score in the area of preparedness belonged to support and logistics management, and the lowest score to the areas of human resources and information [19]. In the Singh et al study, the highest preparedness score belonged to the structure of planning and decision making [21]. In the Dewi et al study, the highest scores in the private and public hospitals belonged to the field of management in designing programs for COVID-19.…”

“…Also, the level of preparedness in police hospitals was higher than in public and private hospitals [20]. In a study conducted by Singh et al in an Indian hospital to determine the preparedness for the COVID-19 epidemic, the preparedness was found acceptable [21]. In Ezzati et al study in Iran, the results showed that hospitals are well prepared for crises and disasters, but poor and very poor preparedness in the areas of reception and traffic can cause problems in times of disaster [22].…”