A study to evaluate the level of hospital preparedness to respond to a
bioterrorist attack such as smallpox or anthrax, in the western United States
(Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) was conducted from
May to September 2000. A survey questionnaire was mailed to 300 randomly
selected hospitals. A telephone survey followed.
The data examined the population served, licensed bed capacity, median
income of the population served, the geographic location, and the type of facility
served. The findings from the 177 hospitals that answered the survey showed that
only 28.8% of them had a specific plan in place in the event of a bioterrorist attack
to their communities.
More hospitals with large bed capacity serving large populations had plans
to respond to the event of a bioterrorist attack than those hospitals with small bed
capacity, usually serving small rural communities.
Although the comparison of hospitals in each of the six western states
showed no statistically significant difference between the number of hospitals with
a plan to respond to a biological threat, hospitals in California showed the largest
percentage of specific plans addressing biological events, followed by hospitals in
the state of Washington.
When the type of facility was considered, private hospitals more often
developed a plan due to high-density population through their area than non-private
hospitals, which indicates that bioterrorism plans may be developed when the funds
are available.
The most frequent answer given for not developing a plan was lack of
adequate funding. Findings indicated a need for additional resources directed to
hospitals, especially in rural areas.
Because this study was conducted before the tragic terrorism events
occurred in the United States in the fall of 2001, it may be considered a benchmark
for future readiness evaluations of the response to the impact of those events in the
Western states. / Graduation date: 2004
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/30596 |
| Date | 27 October 2003 |
| Creators | Phillips, Margaret J. |
| Contributors | Rossignol, Annette |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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