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Abstract., (This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background/Aim. Resuscitation and surgical medical aid are the most important medical procedures in disaster relief operations. The limited time frame available for life-saving activities in such circumstances demands that resuscitation and surgical medical teams be established and trained for timely reaction and disaster medical support prior to disaster occurrence. The aim of the study was to analyze the awareness among the hospital medical staff in the Plovdiv Region of the hospital response plan in case of disaster, which concerns surgical and resuscitation team composition and tasks for disaster medical support. Methods. An anonymous survey, consisting of 55 questions about hospital staff awareness of the medical activities described in the hospital disaster medical support plan, was conducted between July and September 2019 among 295 hospital medical professionals in the Plovdiv Region, Bulgaria. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s χ2 test were used in the statistical analysis of results. Results. The survey showed that the majority of medical staff demonstrated complete ignorance regarding the presence, number, and tasks of the specialized medical teams planned for hospital disaster response. Employees of multidisciplinary hospitals for active treatment were more familiar with the aforementioned plans than their colleagues from the university multidisciplinary hospitals. Conclusion. Insufficient awareness about human resources foreseen for disaster medical support negatively impacts the hospital surge capacity, leading to inadequate medical assistance in such cases. Hospital tactical disaster preparedness must be ameliorated by conducting a more rigorous training program among medical staff related to the planned hospital activities in case of disastrous events, especially for those working in emergency departments, intensive care units, and surgical departments.

Background/Aim. In the event of a disaster, it is necessary for medical personnel to demonstrate the operational component of disaster resilience, which requires certain knowledge and skills regarding disaster medical response algorithms. The aim of this study was to analyze the preparedness of hospital’s healthcare staff for maintaining hospital disaster resilience. Methods. An anonymous survey was conducted from July to September 2019 among 295 medical staff employed in hospitals in the territory of the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Pearson’s Chisquare test, Student’s t-test, and graphical analysis were used in the statistical analysis. Results. Most of the medical staff, i.e., 85.8%, believed that disaster drills are not held regularly in hospitals, 30.8% thought that the training period was shorter than two years, and the majority, i.e., 86.1%, did not participate in exercises. Conclusion. Due to the irregular implementation of exercises and the small number of participants in them, the level of preparedness for responding to disasters is not maintained at a high level in hospitals in the Plovdiv region. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a specific training program and exercise once a year, which should have a beneficial effect on increasing the preparedness of the medical staff for disasters and improving the operational resilience of the hospital.