Fire safety management in public health-care buildings: issues and possible solutions

Abstract

Purpose Frequent fire incidences in various hospitals across the globe with devastating effects on humans and other resources have multiplied. Stakeholders in the health-care sector are worried because of the yearly fire outbreak increase. However, fire safety management has been proved as a successful platform to mitigate fire in health-care facilities. How far regarding public health-care facilities is yet to receive in-depth studies in Malaysia. This paper aims to investigate the issues associated with fire safety management and proffers possible solutions to improve safety in public health-care facilities from the operators’ perception. Design/methodology/approach The objectives were achieved through a combination of case studies of five selected Malaysia’s public hospitals and a qualitative approach. Thematic analysis with the assistance of MAXQDA (software program designed for computer-assisted qualitative and mixed methods data) 2018, a type of qualitative data analysis software was used to analyse the collated data which emerged from the knowledgeable participants. Findings Lax implementation of safety policy, inadequate water pressure, poor maintenance, inadequate communication system, amongst others, emerged as the issues. Findings proffer five main measures to possibly improve fire safety management in public health-care buildings. This includes a feasible institutional framework, improve the emergency response team, improve the occupational health and safety system and others. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited to exploring the issues associated with fire safety management and proffer possible solutions to improve safety in public health-care facilities from the operators’ perception. Future research is needed to engage useful information in advancing fire safety management in public hospital buildings and possibly developing a qualitative model using a generic fire response model. Also, to investigate the level of compliance with the requirements of a fire safety management plan and possibly develop a well-detailed fire safety plan in Malaysia’s public health-care buildings. Practical implications As part of the paper implications, the paper concludes that improved fire protection systems via modern technologies and training of key staff members in accident response and recovery during fire emergencies should be encouraged. This can be achieved through the enforcement and implementation of a fire safety management plan. Thus, this study is encouraging the implementation and sustainability of a fire safety management plan for health-care buildings across Malaysia. Originality/value To the best of this paper’s knowledge, this is possibly the first comprehensive paper on fire safety management in public health-care facilities that engaged operators in Malaysia. Moreover, this paper proffers feasible policy solutions to improve the fire safety management plan in public health-care buildings.

An assessment of South African airlines’ growth in the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies: the unexplored dimension

“…Also, the developed thematic network of the major results, as shown in Figure 1, emphasising sustainable regulatory guidelines, legislative instruments and governance driven towards 4IR is part of the study's theoretical implications. This aligns with Salim et al (2021) and Ibrahim et al (2022) that adopted their study's thematic network as part of the theoretical implication.…”

Fire risk assessment of Malaysia public hospital buildings

“…It requires a longer period for the public to emerge from the high-rise hospitals (Ong and Suleiman, 2015). The premise involved could be saved if an automatic censoring system, together with a nearby supply of water, was available to wet the structure down in sufficient time to prevent the structure from being set on fire by small localised flames (Salim et al , 2021). Active systems such as alarm and automatic sprinkler systems add several benefits to high-rise hospitals as the system has a high probability of extinguishing or controlling the fire and detect fire at an early stage.…”

“…Health-care facility’s environment is rich in flammable and toxic materials; thus, mitigating fire outbreak should be all-inclusive. A faulty fire safety management plan and law obligations would negatively affect the performance of hospital buildings too (Salleh et al , 2020; Salim et al , 2021).…”

“…Malaysia’s hospitals premises faced challenges in fire safety management such as blockage of fire safety systems, inadequate installation of fire measures or outdated fire safety technology and documentation problems (Salim et al , 2021; Ong and Suleiman, 2015). In detail, Ong and Suleiman (2015) identified the mistakes and problems of fire accidents as follows: lack of installation of automatic systems; problems in the enforcement of the law; poor planning, maintenance, and management in fire safety issues; poor performance of hospital staff; combustible construction material; poor post-fire accident management; problems caused by authority; and conflict of security and fire safety. …”

“…Hospital organisations address safety throughout the installation's life cycle, as well as safety management systems. The regulations emphasise the need for appropriate communication, design, commissioning, operation, maintenance and abandonment of the installation (Ab Aziz et al , 2019; Salim et al , 2021).…”