Report on the results of a hospital safety assessment for the Kyrgyz Republic: summary 2017

Overview

Health facilities are critical assets for communities, especially for response to emergencies, disasters and other crises immediately following the impact or exposure. Assessment of 70 hospitals in the Kyrgyz Republic was conducted, using the Hospital Safety Index, to improve safety and ensure functionality during and after emergencies as the information generated by the individual hospital assessment would assist evidence-based planning of service delivery, contributing to a national masterplan for the coming decades and helping guide potential investments in health infrastructure. This assessment addressed hospitals at different levels (‎i.e. rayon, city, oblast and republican hospitals)‎ selected by the Ministry of Health according to the geographic location and strategic importance in emergencies. Each hospital assessment process included reviews of relevant documents including emergency plans; hospital staff interviews; and visual inspections. Less than half the assessed hospitals were assessed as having average level of safety, while the remaining had low level of safety and none of the hospitals met the criteria for a high safety level hospital. It is therefore ex tremely critical that hospitals with predominantly low scores are upgraded in line with the recommendations pro vided by the assessment teams, in order to ensure resilience of the health system in times of crisis. In addition, including the components of hospital safety assessment in the Kyrgyz Republic’s hospital accreditation process will help ensure that the hospitals’ resilience in emergencies.