Non-structural Components influencing Hospital Disaster Preparedness in Malaysia

• Published in: IOP conference series. Earth and environmental science 2018-04, Vol.140 (1), p.12007
• Main Authors: Samsuddin, N M, Takim, R, Nawawi, A H, Rosman, M R, SyedAlwee, S N A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Disaster management; Disasters; Emergency preparedness; Laboratory equipment; Medical equipment; Medical laboratories
• ISSN: 1755-1307; 1755-1315
• DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/140/1/012007

Hospital disaster preparedness refers to measures taken by the hospital's stakeholders to prepare, reduce the effects of disaster and ensure effective coordination during incident response. Among the measures, non-structural components (i.e., medical laboratory equipment & supplies; architectural; critical lifeline; external; updated building document; and equipment & furnishing) are critical towards hospital disaster preparedness. Nevertheless, over the past few years these components are badly affected due to various types of disasters. Hence, the objective of this paper is to investigate the non-structural components influencing hospital's disaster preparedness. Cross-sectional survey was conducted among thirty-one (31) Malaysian hospital's employees. A total of 6 main constructs with 107 non-structural components were analysed and ranked by using SPSS and Relative Importance Index (RII). The results revealed that 6 main constructs (i.e. medical laboratory equipment & supplies; architectural; critical lifeline; external; updated building document; and equipment & furnishing) are rated as 'very critical' by the respondents. Among others, availability of medical laboratory equipment and supplies for diagnostic and equipment was ranked first. The results could serve as indicators for the public hospitals to improve its disaster preparedness in terms of planning, organising, knowledge training, equipment, exercising, evaluating and corrective actions through non-structural components.