Showing 3 results for Fire
Hazhir Kurd, Vida Zaroushani, Yousef Akbari Shahrestanaki, Ali Safari Variani,
Volume 6, Issue 2 (1-2021)
Abstract
Background: Hospitals are highly vulnerable to fire because of the presence of vulnerable people (patients, medical staff, and visitors), expensive equipment, and the ignorance and low-risk perception of occupants. Injuries caused by fire can result in life and financial losses and can disrupt the performance of a hospital. Fire risk assessment is an effective way to assess vulnerability, capacity, and capability. This study aims to evaluate the risk of fire and identify the effective factors and their contribution to a hospital.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using the Fire Risk Assessment Method for Engineering (FRAME) in the equipment room of a hospital in Qazvin, Iran. The fire risk was first calculated by using the related formulas in Excel software. Then, the influential factors and their contribution to the overall risk were determined to perform corrective measures for reducing the risk.
Results: The numerical value of risk for the building and its contents, occupants, and activities were 2.075, 3.315, and 2.481, respectively (>1), indicating its unacceptable level. Factors affecting the potential risk level for the building and its content and occupants were fire load, venting, and access. Regarding the acceptable risk level, the activation factor was identified as an influential factor in all domains. The highest contribution in the potential risk level for the building and its content and occupants was related to the fire load factor (1.6). In the acceptable risk level, the highest contribution was related to the activation factor (0.4).
Conclusion: The FRAME method can also identify effective factors and their contribution to the overall fire risk of medical centers such as hospitals to help develop plans and special measures to reduce the risk.
Vida Zaroushani, Farahnaz Khajehnasiri,
Volume 8, Issue 0 (5-2023)
Abstract
Hospitals are a symbol of social welfare and the last refuge of patients, which is the most important issue of the health system. Patient safety is the first and most important issue for the health system. Before COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined the Hospital Safety Index (HSI) to measure hospital preparedness for disasters. During the COVID-19 crisis, hospitals faced many problems, including safety. Governments and health officials need to pay attention to fire safety. In the Covid-19 crisis, different conditions were experienced in hospitals, and the number of patients, inpatients, medical staff, equipment, and machinery in these critical conditions has increased significantly. This article in the form of a letter to the editor tries to point out the challenges and opportunities of hospital safety index tools to reduce hospitals’ vulnerability to improve their performance and resilience to disasters.
Dr Saeed Fallah-Aliabadi, Pouran Abbasian, Dr Mohammad Reza Khajehaminian,
Volume 9, Issue 1 (9-2023)
Abstract
Background: Building fires are the most common threatening and distressing hazard in hospitals. Fire is one of the top 10 hazards that threaten Iranian hospitals. Nevertheless, no study has been done on the features of fires in Iran hospitals. So, this study aimed to investigate the characteristics of fires taking place in Iranian hospitals.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, news related to fire broke out in Iranian hospitals was retrieved from the archive of 5 reputable Persian news agencies using the Persian search terms: “Fire”, “hospital”, and “clinic”. Quantitative content analysis was used to assess retrieved news text. Data gathered by the Emergency Operation Center of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education were also studied.
Results: In total, 86 incident reports were assessed for the period spanning from 2005 to 2020, with more than half accessed just through reputable news agencies. The electrical short circuit was the most reported incident cause, and the medical care environment was the most reported place of incident. Twenty-five incident reports indicated that partial or complete emergency evacuation was executed.
Conclusion: It is imperative to raise awareness about the lack of an integrated mechanism for registering such incidents. Future research can be conducted designing a critical registry system that collects, analyzes, and disseminates hospital incident data.
