Questionnaire survey on the possibility of Hospital A staff assembling in case of a disaster due to the revision of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

<p>【Purpose】 Hospital A, located in the Tokai region, which has little experience with disasters, is likely to play a key role in supporting community medical institutions providing disaster medical care in the event of a disaster. Hospital A developed its Business Continuity Plan (BCP), which needs to be revised following changes in hospital conditions, in 2018. The key points of the revision focus on retaining and securing human resources to maintain hospital functions and to concentrate hospital staff in the event of a large-scale disaster. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate an actual situation in which hospital staff would gather in the event of a disaster and consider the human resources management necessary to maintain hospital functions over the long term. 【Method】 Study participants were all 1,545 employees who worked at Hospital A during December 2023, when the survey was conducted. Employees were classified into regular and non-regular employees, and the types of non-regular employees were part-timers, temporary employees, and re-appointed employees. In addition, the occupations were classified into 12 categories. The survey questionnaires were sent using the electronic medical record questionnaire form because the study participants could use the electronic medical records system in Hospital A. According to the regulations of Hospital A, gathering in case of a large-scale disaster is an individual’s voluntary choice; hence, we asked participants about their willingness to assemble, on a seven-point scale, based on which we estimated the number of people who would assemble. We described the estimated numbers by computing time and profession. 【Results】 The response rate for this survey was 905 (58.6%). Of the 12 occupations that responded, less than 50% of the respondents were doctors, clerks, and nursing assistants. Among the 1,545 participants, only 746 (48.3%) indicated a willingness to assemble at Hospital A in case of a disaster. Among that group of 746, 708.9 (95.0%) were willing to assemble within one hour. Staff most likely to be present at Hospital A during the disaster were radiology technologists (22.5/34 people, 66.2%) and physicians (133.8/242 people, 55.3%). 【Discussion】 Our findings revealed a low level of concern about disaster prevention among the staff of Hospital A. This may be due to our questionnaire being in Japanese, which was difficult for non-native Japanese speakers to respond to. Despite conveying the significance of our research to the department heads, individual staff members may not have understood its importance. Moreover, the requirement of assembling within one hour of a disaster may lead to confusion among those gathered. Hence, the revised BCP requires efforts from both perspectives: strategies for intensively assembling human resources as well as dispersing the assembled hospital staff in anticipation of long-term disaster countermeasures. 【Conclusion】 Our survey was based on the assumption of a disaster emergency under normal circumstances. The results regarding the possibility of hospital staff assembling during a large-scale disaster at Hospital A showed that this could provide a basis for improving the BCP’s functionality. Our findings indicate that it is necessary to plan for long-term human resource management to maintain hospital functions immediately during and after a disaster.</p>