Authors
1 Department of Geology, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
2 Department of Occupational Health, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical, Kerman, Iran
Abstract
Both natural and man‑made disasters are increasing in occurrence at the world. Hospitals and
health‑care centers are very complex and have a high potential for vulnerability depending on external
and internal factors. Unfortunately, past experiences show that health‑care centers and the health
system are vulnerable to disasters. Therefore, risk analysis and safety assessment studies of hospitals
and other health‑care centers are absolutely necessary. This systematic review study was conducted
on the basis of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‑Analyses guidelines.
English language international databases (Pub Med, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and Google
Scholar) were searched through January 1, 2000 up to June 20, 2019. The quality of the studies was
assessed using the International Narrative Systematic Assessment tool. From 3630 titles identified in
this search, 24 studies were selected. The important findings of this study were grouped into five main
categories: risk analysis method, type of disaster, hospital safety methods, hospital components and
key outcomes of risk analysis, and hospital safety assessments. The nature of disasters is a threat
to the lives and property of the people, and therefore hospitals must be available at the incidents
and disasters and they must be able to respond to the needs of the disaster‑affected community.
The probability of an incident and its consequences can never be reduced to zero; because the
severity of many natural and even man‑made disasters is unpredictable and the probability of their
occurrence is different; however, it is possible to identify weaknesses and strengths through risk
analysis studies as well as hospital safety assessments and implement retrofitting programs based
on the type of risks and safety status and reduce the level of risk to an acceptable level.
Keywords
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