Evaluation of Accident and Disaster Preparedness of Hospitals Affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

Background: Hospitals, as the first and most important treatment centers for injured people, should be prepared before the crisis to provide health care services in the best possible manner, with appropriate and prompt action. The current study aimed at investigating the accident and disaster preparedness of hospitals affiliated to Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Ahvaz, Iran. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of the current descriptive, cross sectional study was all hospitals affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2017. The main tool to collect information in the study was the checklist of preparedness for disasters designed by Hojjat et al. A group of 20 faculty members of the Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences evaluated the checklist and confirmed its validity. Also, the reliability of the instrument was evaluated using a test-retest method on one of the research units based on Kappa test with a value of 0.8 in acceptable range. Data were collected and coded with SPSS software version 19. Results: The highest level of disaster preparedness at Jundishapur University of medical sciences in Ahvaz belonged to human inferiority with an average score of 67.66±8; 16 of 100, and the lowest belonged to the emergency areas with an average score of 3.75±0.77 or 43 of 100. Imam Khomeini Hospital was in a better status than the other hospitals in terms of emergency, reception, discharging and transferring, traffic, and communication. In terms of education, Abuzar Hospital had the highest level of preparedness; and regarding support and management of health care practices, Salamat Hospital had the highest level for disaster preparedness.  Conclusion: The preparedness of hospitals affiliated to Jondishapour University was in moderate status and Imam Khomeini Hospital had the highest level of accident and disaster preparedness.