A pilot study: Development of a local model to hospital disaster risk assessment

Background: vulnerable events could damage structural, non structural and functional components of hospitals that might lead to community crisis, accordingly. Risk assessment is the first step to develop of a hospital disaster plan. In this study, a primary phase of developing a local tool for Iran's hospital disaster risk assessment entitled "Hospital Safety Index (HSI)" was conducted by World Health Organization originally. Materials and Methods: First, the original index was translated into Farsi in five forms and 145 items. Then a group of four experts from the fields of medicine and engineering assessed the items one-by-one for their relevance and applicability. Revised edition tested three times at Shariati hospital in Tehran. An expert panel also evaluated the feature and content validity of the index. They also weighted the items as well. Results: Test-retest of the index by two independent research groups found 93% of agreement. Furthermore, 244 points were revised or added to the original edition. The most important changes included: Combining instruction parts with related items for increasing educational properties, completing the list of hazards, developing a plan to analysis, and to present a quantitative and graphic of the model and finally to prepare an educational package as well. Conclusion: Persian version of HSI, in response to needs of Iranian's health system, represents a rapid no-expensive tool for screening disaster risks at hospitals based on an international template that was tested in several countries. Based on this study, the Farsi index would be evaluated in more hospitals around the country. The assessment results will provide Iranian's health system with evidence-based information for more effective allocated resources and interventions evaluating