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A Framework to Assess Effect of Interdependent Infrastructures' Disruption on Operation of Hospital during Natural Disasters

Farahmand, Hamed | 2018

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 50834 (09)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Civil Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Haj Kazem Kashani, Hamed
  7. Abstract:
  8. In earthquake-prone communities, the post-earthquake functionality of hospitals is crucial. Hospitals can dramatically reduce earthquake casualties if they can remain functional and retain service continuity. A variety of earthquake-induced problems such as damage to hospital components, unavailability of medical staff, disruption in medicine supply, and failure of supporting infrastructure systems can negatively affect the functionality of a hospital. Hospital administrators and facility managers require appropriate tools to assess the effect of these problems on hospital functionality. This research presents a probabilistic framework to assess the functionality of hospitals following natural disasters considering the effect of supporting infrastructure systems i.e., power and water network, with a focus on earthquakes. The results of the proposed framework can be exploited by decision-makers to increase their perception of vulnerability and risk of the system. It also helps them to choose optimal decisions to enhance the performance of the system following an earthquake, regarding resource limitations. The proposed framework consists of probabilistic models that work together to simulate the impacts of an earthquake on the functionality of the hospital. Operations inside the hospital are modeled using Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and the impacts of damages and failures of various components of the system on its functionality are determined using fragility curves. Qualitative Fault Tree is also used to quantify the impacts of damages and failures on the disruption of operations. A case study has been investigated and the framework has been implemented to a case study Emergency Department. The results of this case study show that the consequences of an earthquake in a hospital highly depend on the intensity of the hazard and vulnerability of the hospital components. Quality of treatment can be compromised by the unavailability of critical medical equipment that results in a reduction in the average quality of treatment for patients, especially in the first days following the disaster. Testing the reliability of water and power networks on the functionality of the ED shows that although poor condition of these supporting infrastructures affect the overall functionality of the ED, due to availability and low vulnerability of backup systems, which increase system redundancy, these effects are not as considerable as the impacts of demand escalation and vulnerability of department’s building
  9. Keywords:
  10. Resilience ; Infrastructure ; Uncertainty ; Hospital ; Natural Disasters ; Risk ; Vulnerability

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