Evaluation of risk management frameworks for hospitals

Abstract

Unlike disasters that arise from natural hazards, fire disasters can occur at any moment, in any place, if the proper precautions are not taken. The spreading of fire can more often cause disastrous results, such as loss of property, injuries, and death. Hospitals especially have a vulnerability to fire, considering the flammable materials present in the buildings such as medical gas, generator fuel, laboratory materials, high fire risk areas such as kitchens and generator room, a high waste generation which occurs in hospitals as well as the vulnerable people in the hospital such as patients with mobility issues. Therefore, fire risk management is essential for hospitals. This research study focused on developing a risk management framework for hospitals focusing on fire hazards. The framework consists of two sections; a risk assessment tool that can be used to assess the fire risk performance of hospitals and a post-disaster activity list for hospitals after a fire hazard. The framework consists of three modules: design and construction, operation and maintenance, and fire hazard management. This framework can be used by hospital administrators to evaluate the current level of fire safety of the hospital. Thereby, the administration can analyze the weaknesses and take action to correct them. The post-disaster activity list contains actions related to the elements of people, buildings and critical infrastructure, hospital equipment, and material and post-disaster administrative work. During the development and analyzing the applicability of the risk management framework, six governmental and 3 private-owned hospitals were assessed. The data collected revealed some key differences between the two types of hospitals. The private-owned hospitals showed a better level of preparedness for hospital fires as they had fire extinguishers and other fire protection systems which were updated regularly, had annual maintenance and testing of fire protection systems and annual fire training and fire drills for staff. In almost all of the surveyed government hospitals, these elements of preparedness were missing.