Evaluation of Hospitals’ Disaster Preparedness Plans in the Holy City of Makkah (Mecca): A Cross-Sectional Observation Study

Abstract

Makkah has experienced multiple disaster incidents over the last decade. The present research suggests that Makkah hospitals are insufficiently prepared for potential future disasters. This may represent a considerable threat to the health of both residents and visitors to Makkah. This study demonstrated that there is significant room for improvement in most aspects of hospital Emergency Operations Plans, in particular: reviewing the plan and increasing the frequency of multi-agency and multi-hospital drills. Preparedness for terrorism utilizing chemical, biologic, radiation, nuclear, explosion (CBRNE) and infectious diseases was found to be sub-optimal and should be assessed further. Al-Shareef AS , Alsulimani LK , Bojan HM , Masri TM , Grimes JO , Molloy MS , Ciottone GR . Evaluation of hospitals' disaster preparedness plans in the holy city of Makkah (Mecca): a cross-sectional observation study. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32 (1):33-45.

Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear preparedness of public hospitals in Riyadh

“…This gure is higher than what was reported in a Belgian study (53%). (10) Combined drills were conducted in collaboration with local agencies in very few hospitals, and this nding concurs with those of Wetter et al and Al-Shareef et al (15,21) In the present study, only half of the hospitals had a designated CBRN coordinator. A CBRN coordinator oversees CBRN preparedness activities.…”

“…Without clearly de ned objective criteria and key performance indicators of minimum requirements for staff preparedness, it is not possible to assess hospital preparedness. (22) Many measures of disaster preparedness exist (15,24), one of which assess 3 associated competencies: general competencies, speci c competencies of emergency nurses, and rapid response competencies of rst-line healthcare providers (23). However, the CBRNE Plan Checklist was adapted and used in the present study because we found it to be most appropriate to the Saudi context.…”

“…Healthcare workers in Australia, the United States, and Mecca receive advanced training in disaster management. (9,15,21) The hospitals were found to have satisfactorily assigned roles and responsibilities that pertain to the management of CBRN events to different personnel. Responsibilities that pertain to issues such as triage, security, chain of custody, storage of contaminated items, and transportation of contaminated items and deceased persons had been assigned in a majority of the study hospitals.…”

“…(14) Further, studies that have examined the disaster preparedness of hospitals in Mecca and Riyadh have reported the following: substantially inadequate education, training, and monitoring of hospital staff, a lack of exercises and drills that promote disaster preparedness, and suboptimal hospital disaster preparedness plans. (15,16) Saudi Arabia is at a risk for attacks that involve WMD. The ongoing war in neighboring countries, namely, Syria, Yemen, Israel, and Palestine, and emergence of terrorist groups in this region have increased the risk of attacks on Saudi Arabia.…”

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of emergency department staff towards disaster and emergency preparedness at tertiary health care hospital in central Saudi Arabia

“…12 A growing number of studies in the literature reported facts about Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's disaster management and preparedness. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Bajow et al, 20 evaluated hospital disaster preparedness in Jeddah region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and showed that although study hospital had the tools and quality indicators for emergency preparedness, staff are lacking the proper training and management of disaster. Moreover, quite a few studies have reported variety in staff knowledge, training and education regarding preparedness for disaster emergency incidents.…”