To find the psychological competencies for surviving a disaster and develop a self-report questionnaire to assess them.

Interviews with 16 earthquake survivors and 16 fire fighters followed by qualitative analysis were used to find psychological competencies. Formation of the item pool, a pilot study among 20 college teachers and students, a series of principal component analyses for the data from 345 college students, and a confirmatory factor analysis for the data from 307 participants with various occupations were used to develop the Psychological Competencies for Surviving a Disaster Questionnaire (PCSDQ).

We found 4 psychological competencies: risk perception of a disaster, disaster knowledge and self-relief skills, low fear in a disaster, and sense of control over a disaster. The 24-item PCSDQ assessed these psychological competencies. The Cronbach alpha of PCSDQ subscales ranged from .75 to .87.

The psychological competencies for surviving a disaster were found to be risk perception of a disaster, disaster knowledge and self-relief skills, low fear in a disaster, and sense of control over a disaster. Using the PCSDQ to assess a person’s psychological competencies for disaster survival will make it possible to provide that person with an individualized and targeted disaster self-relief education and/or training program. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-9)

To identify the most and least commonly cited security management messages that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are communicating to their field staff, to determine the types of documentation that NGOs most often use to communicate key security messages, and to distinguish the points of commonality and divergence across organizations in the content of key security messages.

The authors undertook a systematic review of available security policies, manuals, and training materials from 20 international humanitarian NGOs using the InterAction Minimum Operating Security Standards as the basis for a review framework.

The most commonly cited standards include analytical security issues such as threat and risk assessment processes and guidance on acceptance, protection, and deterrence approaches. Among the least commonly cited standards were considering security threats to national staff during staffing decision processes, incorporating security awareness into job descriptions, and ensuring that national staff security issues are addressed in trainings. NGO staff receive security-related messages through multiple document types, but only 12 of the 20 organizations have a distinct security policy document. Points of convergence across organizations in the content of commonly cited standards were found in many areas, but differences in security risk and threat assessment guidance may undermine communication between aid workers about changes in local security environments.

Although the humanitarian community has experienced significant progress in the development of practical staff security guidance during the past 10 years, gaps remain that can hinder efforts to garner needed resources, clarify security responsibilities, and ensure that the distinct needs of national staff are recognized and addressed. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:241-250)

In this manuscript, we discuss the implementation and deployment of mobile integrated health and community paramedicine (MIH/CP) testing sites to provide screening, testing, and community outreach during the first months of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the metropolitan region of Charlotte, North Carolina. This program addresses the need for an agile testing strategy during the current pandemic. We disclose the number of patients evaluated as “persons under investigation” and the proportion with positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) results from these sites. We describe how the programs were applied to patient care and include considerations on how additional staffing, scalability, and flexibility of these services may be applied to future patient and health care crises.

This is a descriptive report of the implementation of MIH/CP test sites in our health care system’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Retrospective data on the number of patients and their associated demographics are reported here as raw data. No statistical analysis was performed.

Between March 15, 2020, and April 15, 2020, our 6 MIH/CP test sites evaluated 4342 patients. Of these, 401 patients (9.2%) had positive test results, 62.8% of whom were women. The estimated duration of each patient encounter under investigation was 3 to 5 minutes. The paramedics were able to perform a brief history, specific physical examination, and screening for signs of hypoxemic respiratory failure. There were no cases of accidental exposure or failure of personal protective equipment for the MIH/CP paramedics.

In our health care system, we pivoted the traditional MIH/CP model to rapidly initiate remote drive-through testing for COVID-19 in pre-screened individuals. This model allowed us to test patients with suspected COVID-19 patients away from traditional health care sites and mitigate exposure to health care workers and other patients.

Here, we present an overview of how a tertiary hospital responded to maintain necessary activities and protect patients and staff from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

Gil Medical Center, a tertiary hospital in Incheon, has operated a special response team since January 21, 2020. All visitors were assessed for body temperature and respiratory symptoms, and screened for recent overseas travel. Suspected COVID-19 patients were taken to a screening clinic. All febrile patients with or without respiratory symptoms were taken to a respiratory safety clinic. An isolation ward, which consisted of 10 negative-pressure rooms, was used to treat confirmed cases. More than 120 beds were prepared for the outbreak, and patients with pneumonia were preemptively isolated.

By May 5, 480 960 visitors were assessed at the control station, 3350 patients visited the triage center, and 1794 were treated in the respiratory safety clinic. Seventeen confirmed cases were admitted to the negative isolation ward, and 350 patients with pneumonia were preemptively isolated. A total of 2977 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) polymerase chain reaction tests were performed.

While tertiary hospitals play an important role in treating both COVID-19 patients and non-COVID-19 patients, hospital staff have to protect themselves from unexpected in-hospital transmission. A multifaceted response must be undertaken to protect tertiary hospitals and their staff during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health emergency caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study aimed to evaluate whether technical analysis (TA) indicators, commonly used in the financial market to spot security price trend reversals, might be proficiently used also to anticipate a possible increase of SARS-Cov-2 spread.

Analysis was performed on datasets from Italy, Iran, and Brazil. TA indicators tested were: (1) the combined use of a faster (3-d) and a slower (20-d) simple moving averages (SMA), (2) the moving average converge/divergence (MACD), and (3) the divergence in the direction of the number of new daily cases trend and the corresponding MACD histogram.

We found that the use of both fast/slow SMAs and MACD provided a reliable signal of trend inversion of SARS-Cov-2 spread. Results were consistent for all the 3 countries considered. The trend reversals signaled by the indicators were always followed by a sustained trend persistence until a new signal of reversal appeared.

TA indicators tested here proved to be reliable tools to identify in the short mid-term a subsequent change of direction of viral spread trend either downward, upward, or sideward.

Disability-related education is essential for disaster responders and critical care transporters to ensure positive patient outcomes. This pilot study evaluated the effect of an online educational intervention on disaster responders and critical care transporters’ knowledge of and feelings of self-efficacy about caring for individuals with developmental disabilities.

A 1-group, pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design was used. A convenience sample of 33 disaster responders and critical care transporters participated.

Of the 33 participants, only 24% had received prior education on this topic, and 88% stated that such education would be beneficial to their care of patients. Nineteen participants completed both the pretest and posttest, and overall performance on knowledge items improved from 66% correct to 81% correct. Self-efficacy for caring for developmentally disabled individuals improved, with all 10 items showing a statistically significant improvement.

Online education is recommended to improve the knowledge and self-efficacy of disaster responders and critical care transporters who care for this vulnerable population after disasters and emergencies. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:677–681)

Research on the disaster management plans of renowned universities worldwide shows that such plans are generally compiled in 3 categories: structural, nonstructural, and organizational sections. The importance of earthquakes in Tehran and the high vulnerability of the University of Tehran to earthquakes encouraged us to challenge the university’s plans concerning disaster management.

An initial attempt was made to analyze the disaster management of 23 renowned universities worldwide and their structure compared with the present organizational structure of the University of Tehran. Then an expert opinion study was done to determine the appropriate management structure of the Incident Command System.

These efforts resulted in an adhocratic system as the proper one for emergency situations after an earthquake. Furthermore, the results of the comparative study led to a general management structure that may be considered as a global pattern.

An appropriate organizational structure is proposed for the disaster management of the University of Tehran, which may be used as an appropriate disaster management structure for other universities. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:681–693)