Implementing GIS to improve hospital efficiency in natural disasters

© Authors 2018. CC BY 4.0 License. Over the past decades, the number of natural disasters has been growing around the world. In addition to damaging communities and infrastructures, unexpected disasters also affect service providers such as hospitals and health centers. Markedly, hospital safety from disasters is a challenge in all countries. With disaster damage to health systems resulting in human tragedy, huge economic losses, devastating blows to developmental goals, and shaken social confidence. Ensuring that hospitals and health facilities are safe and secure from disasters depend on implementing an appropriate method to mitigate adverse impacts on hospitals during incidents. Thus, disaster management becomes even more significant, as the health sector has been particularly vulnerable to damages. So, it is crucial to develop appropriate mitigation and adoption method for healthcare facilities, to withstand the natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. A comprehensive disaster plan is required to ensure a prompt disaster response and coordinated management of a multi causality incident. The aim of this research is to systemically and critically review the importance of hospitals in disaster events and this research attempts to reach a basic understanding to mitigate the risk of disasters in hospitals and improve the continuity of health services during or after disaster events. For this study, secondary information was retrieved from the literature review and document review on sudden-onset natural disasters in different parts of the world was collected. This study found some challenges and deliverables for disaster managers that could mitigate the risk of a natural disaster's impact on a hospital. Accordingly, this research will evaluate the importance of disaster management for hospitals and the challenges that need to be considered during the disaster response.