On December 9, 2006, President Bush signed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (S. 3678) into law. Passage of S. 3678 marks a major milestone in improving public health and hospital preparedness for bioterrorist attacks, pandemics, and other catastrophes and for improving the development of new medical countermeasures, such as medicines and vaccines, against biosecurity threats. Highl...

The Y2K threat provides an excellent case study of organizational perception of and adjustment to risks. Utilizing qualitative data collected from focus group interviews with thirteen health care organizations, this paper examines hospital risk perception and preparedness for the Y2K computer problem. The potential for a date-specific failure of technological systems required hospitals to ident...

The objective of this study is to investigate the subject of birth preparedness and complication readiness to tackle the obstetric complications. Birth preparedness and complication readiness is studied based on husband’s response. Emergency birth preparedness has been promoted to address delays in seeking skilled care at birth. However, little evidence is available for birth preparedness and i...

Medical librarians have often been overlooked as important contributors to hospital disaster preparedness. Recognizing the importance of medical libraries and their potential in disaster planning and management, the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC), formed a pilot Disaster Information Specialist Project. This paper describes the prelimi...

According to the human consequences caused by emergencies and disasters, the health system especially hospitals, are among the first places that are influenced by this events. Continuity of service provision by hospitals after emergencies and disasters is one of the important issues that should be taken into consideration by all people and authorities. For hospitals, it is necessary to promote ...

BACKGROUND Preparedness of health care professionals for emergency situations is quite indispensable in quality health care; yet, information barely exists on the preparedness of health care professionals for emergency cases in health facilities in Ghana. This study sought to assess the preparedness of health professionals in preventing maternal mortality cases at a public health facility in Gh...

Due to the potential for an influenza pandemic, preparedness for infection control in healthcare settings is essential from the standpoint of occupational health for healthcare workers. We conducted questionnaire surveys among Japanese hospitals to assess preparedness at the individual and institutional levels and their inter-relationship. Questionnaires were administered at 7 tertiary hospital...

Introduction: A widely acknowledged aspect of emergency preparedness is hospital-wide staff education. Maintaining interest in hospital among challenging. education process involving a robust lecture and hands on donning doffing sessions followed by periodic disaster drills has been recently undertaken as quality improvement process. Method: prospective pre- post-test study 256 were given six-h...