Identification of Health, Safety, and Environment Aspects and Hazards in Loghman Hospital and Manage of Their Risks using Analytical Hierarchy Process Technique

Aims: The present study was conducted to identify and prioritize Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) risk in Loghman hospital. Risk management of hospitals represents a critical issue owing to special safety, health, biological and infection risks, and hospital wastes. Materials and Methods: This study is, in terms of the purpose, an applied research. Statistical population includes 68 managers and experts of risk management in Loghman hospital of Iran. A targeted sampling method was used for sampling. Five points were selected to identify and evaluate the risks at which field visits were made and the checklists were completed. The identified risks were extracted from the checklists and worksheets for identification and evaluation of the risks were completed based on failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) method. Priority of risks obtained by analytical hierarchy process technique was quiet close to that achieved by FMEA approach. Results: Occurrence probability, severity, and detectability of HSE risks were identified using FMEA technique. According to the results, lack of emergency exit with normal weight of 0.143 has the highest priority, followed by lack of building strength (normal weight of 0.114), electricity (0.113), and biological contamination (0.107). Inconsistency rate was estimated close to zero (<0.1), suggesting reliability of the results. Conclusion: According to the results, Loghman hospital lacks emergency exit due to old nature of the building which causes a serious threat for both hospital and people. An emergency exit gate can be constructed for each floor that can be used in emergency events and hence, minimize the estimated risk. Considering low strength of the building due to its old nature, the hospital can be reconstructed through a sophisticated engineering plan. At first, this proposal may not be suitable owing to high cost; however, much higher cost will be imposed if a disaster occurs.