Preparation of Hospital Disaster Plan in Indonesia: The Mentoring Challenges from Offline to Online Program

Abstract

Introduction:Located in a disaster-prone country, more than 3000 hospitals in Indonesia must have a Hospital Disaster Plan (HDP). Instead of pursuing only the hospital accreditation requirements, HDP should be beyond that. Since 2008, CHPM UGM has been providing various HDP training. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a change in offline assistance that shifts to online. This study reports the learning activities, output, and challenges.Method:There were three batches of HDP-paid online courses in 2021. Each batch consists of three series courses. The first series was a basic HDP seminar. The second series was for intensive HDP mentoring for two months. In the second series, the participants focused on analyzing risk and hospital safety index (HSI), detailing job action sheets, and detailing disaster standard operating procedures. Moreover, the third series in the fourth month was an online tabletop exercise (TTX).Results:25 hospitals and 112 people participated. However, only five hospitals that committed finalized the HDP document. The learning process challenges were the participant’s unstable network and their focus on who was on duty while attending the courses. Although the TTX online was a new trial, it worked to asses hospital preparedness for disaster management through well preparation, detailed scenario and proper evaluation instrument. However, it was still difficult to assist participants in completing the HDP documents online, because observation of the hospital environment cannot be carried out while the evidence provided by participants were limited, for example supporting evidence for the HSI indicators.Conclusion:The online series of HDP is feasible because it saves accommodation and transportation costs. However, the intensive online mentoring should be carried out longer to allow participants to do assignments and collect evidence of indicators that must be shown to the facilitators.