Iran Occupational Health

  Background and aims : Emergency evacuation is one of the necessary measures to protect employees in the event of emergency situations (such as fire, flood, earthquake, chemical spill, etc). For this purpose, it is necessary to predict enough number of suitable emergency exits to be ensured that people could be evacuated from buildings and transported to a safe place. This study aimed to assess the state of emergency exit routes in 5 hospitals of Shiraz university of medical sciences.

  Methods : In this cross-sectional study, quantitative indices including occupant load, number and width of emergency exits were calculated using filed data. Emergency response plan and qualitative indices including general specifications, marking, and lighting of emergency routes, were measured using a structured questionnaire adapted from national regulation and requirements. The compliance percent of each indicator were calculated and analyzed.

  Results : The percentages of compliance for quantitative and qualitative indices in all studied hospitals were 37.5±29.1% and 20.8±16.8% respectively. The average rate of criteria for emergency response planning program was calculated 46.6±27.4%. From all five hospitals studied, only two had hospital emergency exits.

  Conclusion: The result of this study showed that in studied hospitals quantitative and qualitative indices of emergency exits and emergency response planning were inappropriate and, especially in the case of number of emergency exits, they need to be improved.