Emergency Field Hospital Following Kermanshah Earthquake in 2017: A Report of an Experience

Background: Following an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale took place in the west of Iran, on November 12th, 2017, numerous state and community response teams were dispatched for a variety of purposes. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the experiences of the medical team dispatched from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) in an emergency field hospital in the city of Sarpol-e-Zahab following the Kermanshah earthquake. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the data collected by SUMS’s team were used. In this regard, the condition of the only local hospital in Sarpol-e-Zahab after the earthquake, the actions taken by SUMS’s team, the existing problems, as well as characteristics of the visited patients, were described. Finally, the satisfaction of the medical staff at the hospital under the study with the performance of the SUMS’s team was analyzed. Results: Following the earthquake, the only hospital in Sarpol-e-Zahab became semi-open. An emergency field hospital was partially established in the hospital’s parking lot. The SUMS’s team changed the arrangement of the field hospital, and during eight days, visited more than 9,000 patients. The most frequent chief complaints of patients were signs of the flu and respiratory infections, various types of trauma, and gastrointestinal problems. Conclusions: Our results indicated that the data were not adequate to cover all the aspects involved. This shows the necessity of developing a registry system for better management of healthcare at times of the crisis.