Article Sidebar
Published:
Oct 28, 2022DOI:
10.4314/ahs.v22i3.71Keywords:
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
Evaluating the level of disaster preparedness of Tunisian University Hospitals using the Hospital Safety Index: a nationwide cross-sectional study
Abstract
Background: Mid-way through the ‘Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030’, many nations are spending time, money and effort to enhance their level of preparedness facing disasters, on the other hand communities, countries and even continents are being left behind.
Objectives: This study was conducted aiming at evaluating the level of disaster preparedness and response of Tunisian University Hospitals.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional nationwide study conducted in Tunisia, from November 2020 to April 2021. Including 9 Tunisian University Hospitals and using the Hospital Safety Index. The data were analysed using the 'Module and safety index calculator'.
Results: This study showed that 7 out of the 9 University Hospitals were assigned the ‘B’ category of safety with overall safety indexes that ranges between 0.37 and 0.62. Also, 4 out of 9 University Hospitals had safety scores less than 0.20 regarding their emergency and disaster management.
Conclusions: This is the first study to evaluate disaster preparedness and response of university hospitals in Tunisia and in north Africa. It showed that the lack of knowledge, resources and willingness, are the most important issues that needs to be addressed in order to enhance the preparedness of Tunisian hospitals.
Keywords: Disaster preparedness; Hospital Safety Index; Tunisian University Hospitals; Scores.
