Assessing the preparedness of hospitals facing disasters using the rough set theory: guidelines for more preparedness to cope with the COVID-19

Abstract

Disasters are severe disruptions occurring at a specific time, causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss that exceeds the affected society or community's ability to endure using its resources. The occurrence of pandemics like COVID-19 demonstrates a lack of proper preparation in hospitals. This study aims to evaluate hospitals' operational readiness levels in disaster management emphasizing the admission, care, and treatment of COVID-19 patients. The article proposes a framework for preparedness of hospitals and establishes a new approach based on the rough set theory to evaluate the preparedness of the referral hospitals infected byCOVID-19. The concept of the upper and lower control limits (UCL and LCL) is used to define preparedness classes. This approach is applied for a case study of 25 hospitals in Tehran, one of Asia's largest cities with a population near 20 million people. Finally, some proper rules areextracted and analysed to determine the preparedness level of hospitals. Moreover, ten suitable rules are introduced which highlight the necessities to get allocated to the highest preparedness class. Finally, the most critical indicators that have the most decisive role in determining the level of functional preparedness in hospitals are suggested .