Hospitals’ Evacuation Preparedness; A Survey Among 42 Thai Hospitals According to the Flexible Surge Capacity Concept.

Abstract

Background: Hospitals are subject to internal and external threats, which could necessitate an evacuation. Such evacuation needs deliberate surge and collaboration, particularly collaborative use of community capacities to handle affected patients, personnel, devices, and hospital structures using consensus systems. Therefore, it is crucial to identify hospital evacuation procedures’ flaws and assess the possibility of implementing measures using community resources. This study aimed to explore Thai hospitals’ current evacuation readiness and preparation regarding surge capacity and collaboration according to the Flexible Surge Capacity concept. Methods: The previously used hospital evacuation questionnaire was adopted. It contained relevant questions about hospital evacuations’ responses and preparedness encompassing surge capacity and collaborative elements and an open-ended question to collect possible perspectives/comments. Results: The findings indicate glitches in evacuation protocols and triage systems and inadequacies in surge planning and multi-agency collaboration. Additionally, it was evident that hospitals had limited information about communities' capabilities and limited collaboration with other public and private organizations. Conclusion: Although implementing the measures for concept integration to hospital evacuation is challenging, pragmatic research exploring planning for community engagement according to the flexible surge capacity to build a concrete hospital evacuation plan would enhance hospital readiness and its generalizations. The latter needs to be tested in simulation exercises.