Hospital Disaster Preparedness Tools: a Systematic Review

Conclusion Study findings indicate that because the HDP tools have not been developed through the process of psychometric evaluation, some indicators of HDP might have remained neglected. HDP can be evaluated by valid and reliable tools which are developed in careful methodological studies through psychometric evaluation process 12. Study findings also showed that currently, there is no comprehensive tool for evaluating HDP. One of the weaknesses of the current tools is their inability to evaluate all aspects of HDP including; structural, non-structural and functional. These tools mainly focus on the structural and non-structural HDP and scarcely deal with the functional HDP 36. The other weakness is related to pitfalls in their psychometric evaluation and/or theoretical frameworks. Moreover, most of the reviewed tools had not been developed based on empirical data. Healthcare systems need evaluation tools which are developed by using experts’ knowledge and experience and are validated through the process of psychometric evaluation. This systematic review study evaluated all general and specific HDP tools. The aim of systematic reviews is not to exactly determine the accuracy and the precision of the available tools. Consequently, we did not evaluate the accuracy and the precision of the reviewed tools. Recommendations and Implications HDP is a long chain that consists of multiple loops. Therefore, it is important to ensure the appropriate tool is used to assess...
Source: PLOS Currents Disasters - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Source Type: research