While different governments worldwide have published sets of recommendations-or even laws-for increasing preparedness, a reference framework to assess the level of compliance of organizations is still to come. For instance, emergency plans often remain stored in closets where they stay until some emergency or major legal change occurs. Consequently, achieving actual preparedness is difficult to...

The Y2K threat provides an excellent case study of organizational perception of and adjustment to risks. Utilizing qualitative data collected from focus group interviews with thirteen health care organizations, this paper examines hospital risk perception and preparedness for the Y2K computer problem. The potential for a date-specific failure of technological systems required hospitals to ident...

In very low-frequency, high-consequence events such as earthquakes or those resulting from malfunctions at commercial nuclear power generating facilities, a group or individual’s prior experience with crisis events will certainly influence judgments and behavior. Written plans and procedures have been shown to serve valuable purposes in training new organizations, individuals, and public offici...

OBJECTIVE This study presents baseline data to determine which hospital characteristics are associated with preparedness for terrorism and natural disaster in the areas of emergency response planning and availability of equipment and specialized care units. METHODS Information from the Bioterrorism and Mass Casualty Preparedness Supplements to the 2003 and 2004 National Hospital Ambulatory Me...

The evaluation of the quality of emergency plans is an unresolved issue. While most research efforts have focused on the definition and improvement of planning methods and the associated tools, a reference framework allowing the assessment of emergency plans is still missing. In this paper, we report our initial work towards the definition of a quality framework for emergency plan management. T...