Emergency Preparedness and Response in Tertiary and Private Hospitals in Yenagoa Metropolis

Many Hospitals around the world are functioning at full capacity and ill prepared to cope with sudden influx of large number of patients during emergencies. This study was carried out to assess the emergency preparedness and response in tertiary and private hospitals in Yenagoa Metropolis. It was a descriptive cross-sectional survey that used questionnaire and checklist, key informant interviews and walk through survey to collect data from 400 staff at the selected tertiary and private hospitals. The results showed that the respondents have good knowledge of emergency preparedness with 300(80%) out of 400 participants with good knowledge and only 100(20%) showing poor knowledge but the status of emergency preparedness and response was poor with Federal Medical Centre Yenagoa with 36(80%) of the items assessed lacking. Niger Delta University teaching Hospital scored 16(36%) while 29(64) not available from the assessment. Private facility 1 had a 6(13%) positive response out of the 45 list items with 39(86%) not in place while the second Private Hospital had a total positive score of 4(10%) with 41(90%) of the components of emergency preparedness lacking. Based on the outcome of the survey, the following recommendations were made: for the hospital management of both the tertiary and private hospitals to constitute an all-inclusive emergency management committee that will develop an emergency preparedness plan in the hospitals; Emergency preparedness and response training of hospital staff to further build their capacity to respond to emergencies or disasters when the need arises; Installation of proper triage unit in the emergency department for decontamination and to sort patients in case of highly infectious disease outbreak or chemical exposure; Collaboration with the State Ministry of Health to have memoranda of understanding with other hospitals to enhance patient transfer in case of disaster events.