Water supply emergency preparedness and response in health care facilities: A systematic review on international evidence

van der Heijden, Sophie, Cassivi, Alexandra, Mayer, Aljoscha and Sandholz, Simone, (2022). Water supply emergency preparedness and response in health care facilities: A systematic review on international evidence. Frontiers in Public Health, 1-17

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    Author van der Heijden, Sophie
    Cassivi, Alexandra
    Mayer, Aljoscha
    Sandholz, Simone
    Title Water supply emergency preparedness and response in health care facilities: A systematic review on international evidence
    Appearing in Frontiers in Public Health
    Publication Date 2022-12-05
    Place of Publication Lausanne
    Publisher Frontiers
    Start page 1
    End page 17
    Language eng
    Abstract Introduction: Enabling health care facilities to deal with impairments or outages of water supply and sewage systems is essential and particularly important in the face of growing risk levels due to climate change and natural hazards. Yet, comprehensive assessments of the existing preparedness and response measures, both in theory and practice, are lacking. The objective of this review is to assess water supply and wastewater management in health care facilities in emergency settings and low-resource contexts. It thereby is a first step toward knowledge transfer across different world regions and/or contexts. Method: A systematic review was performed to identify published articles on the subject using online MEDLINE and Web of Science. The initial searches yielded a total of 1,845 records. Two independent reviewers screened identified records using selection criteria. A total of 39 relevant studies were identified. Descriptive analyses were used to summarize evidence of included studies. Results: Overall, water supply was far more discussed than wastewater management. Studies on emergency preparedness identified back-up water storage tank, additional pipelines, and underground wells as key sources to supply health care facilities with water during an emergency. In emergency response, bottled of water, followed by in-situ back-up water storage tanks previously installed as part of disaster preparedness measures, and tanker trucks to complete were most used. Questions on how to improve existing technologies, their uptake, but also the supplementation by alternative measures remain unanswered. Only few guidelines and tools on emergency preparedness were identified, while multiple studies formulated theoretical recommendations to guide preparedness. Recovery planning was rarely discussed, despite many studies mentioning the importance of the reconstruction and restoration phases. Literature focus on recovery is mostly on technical aspects, while organizational ones are largely absent. Despite their key role for preparedness and response, citizens and patients' perspectives are hugely underrepresented. This fits into the bigger picture as communication, awareness raising and actor cooperation in general is addressed comparatively little. Discussion: Combining organizational and technical aspects, and intersecting theory and practice will be necessary to address existing gaps. Improving both, preparedness and response, is key to maintaining public health and providing primary care.
    UNBIS Thesaurus RISK ASSESSMENT
    Keyword Water supply and wastewater management
    Health care facilities
    Emergency preparedness
    Disaster response
    Low-resource contexts
    Copyright Holder The Authors
    Copyright Year 2022
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1035212
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    Created: Wed, 14 Dec 2022, 00:29:55 JST by Aarti Basnyat on behalf of UNU EHS