title: Assessing hospital preparedness: comparison of an on-site survey with a self-reported, internet-based, long-distance tabletop drill.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Methods of defining hospital disaster preparedness are poorly defined in the literature, leaving wide discrepancies between a hospital's self-reported preparedness and that assessed by an objective reviewer.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study compared self-reported surge capacity data from individual hospitals, obtained from a previously reported long-distance tabletop drill (LDTT) prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in Cape Town, South Africa, with surge capacity data assessed by an on-site survey inspection team.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this prospective, observational study, contact persons used in the prior LDTT assessing hospital disaster preparedness in the lead-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup made surge capacity assessments (licensed bed capacity plus surge capacity beds) for the respiratory intensive care unit (RICU), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), medical intensive care unit (MICU), and general medical/surgical beds in each hospital. Following the 2010 World Cup, this data was then re-evaluated by an on-site survey team consisting of two of the authors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The contact persons for the individual hospitals from the LDTT underreported their individual hospital's surge capacity in 86% (95% CI, 46%-99%) of RICU beds; 100% (95% CI, 63%-100%) of MICU beds; 75% (95% CI, 40%-94%) of NICU beds; and 71% (95% CI, 35%-92%) of medical/surgical beds compared with the on-site inspection team.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The contact persons for the LDTT overwhelmingly underreported surge capacity beds compared with the surge capacity determined by the on-site inspection team.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Emergency Medicine, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York USA.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Valesky
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roblin
authors.forename: Brijal
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adelaine
authors.forename: Shahriar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zehtabchi
authors.forename: Bonnie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arquilla
mesh_terms: D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006761:Hospitals; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents; D057566:Self Report; D013019:South Africa; D055872:Surge Capacity