Fire Emergency Preparedness Among Staff Of Tarkwa Municipal Hospital

ABSTRACT Background: fire emergency preparedness is so important to hospital staffs in order to prevent avoidable fire outbreaks or prevent injury and death in the event of a fire outbreak. Aim: The aim of this study, therefore, was to assess fire emergency preparedness among staff of Tarkwa Municipal Hospital. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using quantitative methods. The study assessed the recent status of fire emergency preparedness of staffs of Tarkwa Municipal Hospital using an interview-administered questionnaire and observational checklists. Data collection was done in April 2018. The study surveyed both clinical and non-clinical staff. A multistage sampling was used where staff were stratified into clinical and non-clinical staff, and then 176 participants were selected using simple random approach. Data were coded, cleaned and entered into Excel statistical package and then imported to STATA version 15 for analysis. The data were summarized and presented as frequency tables, percentages, proportions and figures. Results: Overall, knowledge scoring of staff was low. 21.9% of the respondents had adequate knowledge on emergency fire preparedness. None of them had training as well as drills in fire emergency preparedness at the hospital. Only 34.2% of the respondents had knowledge on use of fire extinguisher. In addition, less than 12% of the respondents correctly knew the fire emergency number. Staff knowledge was also found to be significantly associated with cadre and duration of work at the current workstation (X 2 = 13.1733; p-value=0.000, X 2 = 8.1147; p-value=0.017 respectively). Most (87.1%) of the respondents felt electricity was the most likely source of fire. Furthermore, the majority (44.9%) of the respondents perceived a high need for training on fire emergency preparedness and a large proportion (75.8%) of them rated their fire emergency preparedness level as below average. Non-compliance issues noted included missing annual v fire drills and audit report, evacuation plan in each department, missing fire safety policy document and the use of only red colour coded fire extinguisher as the only fire fighting equipment. Conclusion: Knowledge of staff on fire emergency preparedness was inadequate. Most of the respondents perceived their fire emergency preparedness level was below average and indicted that there was a high need for fire emergency preparedness training among them. Non-compliance to international and local regulations was attributable to unavailability of annual fire audit and drill report, the use of unsuitable type of extinguisher for their major perceived source of fire risk and the absence of other types of firefighting equipment. To meet international and local regulations and guidelines, hospital management should ensure basic fire training for staff. There should be frequent fire emergency drills and fire audits. Appropriate firefighting equipment should be provided. Further research is recommended to extend the study to other institutions.