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Hospital Perspectives on Collaboration with Public Health for Emergency Preparedness
The overall purpose of this project is to improve the collaboration between health care, public health, and emergency management for disaster preparedness and response.
Methods
A survey of hospital emergency managers was conducted. A sample of approximately 2000 hospitals was randomly drawn from the American Hospital Association directory. An invitation was mailed to the Director of the hospital who was asked to have the emergency manager or other employee complete an online questionnaire about collaboration with other emergency preparedness sectors. Data were tranferred to SPSS for analysis. Open-ended questions were coded and preliminary descriptive statistics were calculated.
Results
Five-hundred-seventy-seven hospitals completed the survey for a response rate of 29%. The majority of the responding hospitals were non-profit facilities in rural areas. More than half of responding hospitals reported emplying one or more emergency managers for their hospital. Almost 70% of hospitals receive Healthcare Preparedness Program funding with a mean dollar amount of $32,994. Eighty-six (86%) percent of hospitals report having a local emergency planning committee in their community and 92% report participating in a Hospital Preparedness Coalition.
Preliminary analysis has revealed factors that impeded collaboration included inadequate funding/resources, “turf battles,” lack of regular communication, and personnel turnover. Commonly listed promoters were: routine communication, familiarity with staff, hospital coalitions, adequate funding, and effective leadership.
Conclusion:
Results suggest that more frequent communication with partners and increased funding for hospitals may improve collaboration with public health and other emergency services for disastaers. Health Care coalitions can be useful in improving regular communication.
Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadershipOther professions or practice related to public health
Learning Objectives:
List 3 barriers to collaboration between hospitals and other partners for emergency preparedness.
Describe the current level of collaboration between hospitals and other emergency response partners.
Keyword(s): Disasters, Community-Based Partnership & Collaboration
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a professor of public health with an emphasis in Emergency Public Health. Prior to joining the University of Utah I directed the Center for Public Health and Disasters at UCLA for 17 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.