Hospital safety index: guide for evaluators, 2nd ed.

Overview

The purpose of this Guide for evaluators is to provide guidance to evaluators on applying the checklist, rating a hospital’s safety and calculating the hospital’s safety index. The evaluation will facilitate the determination of the hospital’s capacity to continue providing services following an adverse event, and will guide the actions necessary to increase the hospital’s safety and preparedness for response and recovery in case of emergencies and disasters. Throughout this document, the terms “safe” or “safety” cover structural and nonstructural safety and the emergency and disaster management capacity of the hospital.

The Hospital Safety Index is a tool that is used to assess hospitals’ safety and vulnerabilities, make recommendations on necessary actions, and promote low-cost/high-impact measures for improving safety and strengthening emergency preparedness. The evaluation provides direction on how to optimize the available resources to increase safety ensure the functioning of hospitals in emergencies and disasters. The results of the evaluation will assist hospital managers and staff, as well as health system managers and decision-makers in other relevant ministries or organizations in prioritizing and allocating limited resources to strengthen the safety of hospitals in a complex network of health services. It is a tool to guide national authorities and international cooperation partners in their planning and resource allocation to support improvement of hospital safety and delivery of health services after emergencies and disasters.

The objectives of this Guide for evaluators are:

• to give evaluators an objective and standardized approach to applying the Safe Hospitals Checklist, so that they can make an initial determination about whether or not the hospital will be able to function in the immediate aftermath of emergencies and disasters;
• to provide standard criteria for elements that will be evaluated in different contexts so that there is a common basis for reviewing the safety and needs of a number of hospitals;
• to simplify recording and classifying of information about the strengths and weaknesses found in a hospital, both individually and as part of a health-service network, and communities’ capacity to manage emergencies and disasters;
• to recommend activities and measures to improve hospital safety and preparedness.

The Guide to evaluators also provides guidance to groups of experts from a variety of disciplines who are committed to reducing risks to hospital safety and strengthening preparedness, disaster response and recovery for hospitals.