Developing a hospital preparedness checklist to assess the ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: During epidemics and pandemics, health systems, and especially hospitals, face many challenges in the management of patients and staff. Hospital preparedness measures are critical for hospitals to respond effectively to the admission and management of COVID-19 patients. Ministry of health policy for pandemics must cover the ability of hospitals to respond to COVID-19. AIMS: The aim of this study was to develop a checklist for evaluating the preparedness of hospitals to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We searched for and reviewed available evidence, including the literature and guidelines presented by related organizations. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, face-to-face interview was not possible so we used telephone and video connections, mobile applications and email for unstructured interviews. Checklist development was carried out by a multidisciplinary panel of experts. RESULTS: After applying the opinions of the experts, the final checklist had 2 main domains: measures at national and measures at hospital level. Preparedness at national level was categorized into 3 aspects that are implemented by the health ministry. Preparedness at hospital level was categorized in 24 subgroups. CONCLUSION: Hospital preparedness for admission and management of COVID-19 patients is essential. A checklist for the assessment of hospital preparedness for COVID-19 patient management and hospital management was designed and developed. Our preparedness assessment checklist is an expanded tool that provides clear and practical guidance that can be adapted for any hospital admitting COVID-19 patients.

Health, safety, and education measures for fire in schools: A review article.

Fire buildings is considered as one of the most common and the most devastating disasters and emergencies. Saving school buildings against incidents such as fire is very important since students are so vulnerable to incidents especially fire. The most school classes were devoid of safety conditions and oil-burning heaters were used. Such a condition has increased the risk of disaster and is considered as a serious menace for students' lives. The present study conducted with aim of review the Health, Safety and Education Measures for Fire in Schools. To this purpose, we selected suitable keywords some articles published in Scientific Information Database of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest were searched. The search was limited to reviewed articles in English and Persian language published between 1970 and 2019, based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Furthermore, the selected articles were reviewed for relevant citations. The reviewing of articles was conducted by two member of research team independently. The primary search found 194 relevant studies. After eliminating the duplicates and articles which were not related to the review of the abstract, 51 references were identified for inclusion. Finally, 13 articles were selected after screening and evaluated by two authors to final review main factors and dimensions of schools' health, safety and education include the rules and laws, allocating sufficient budgets, education the teachers, students and their families, exercise, risk analysis, intersectional relations, fire extinguishing equipment, early warning system, and also optimization and reformation of heating system. Applying these new approaches prevents disasters and increases the level of preparedness in case of fire occurrence.