Hospital Safety Projects in Myanmar

Non-Structural Safety Assessments for Mandalay General Hospital and Yangon General Hospital (2019)

Our team conducted non-structural risk assessments of Myanmar’s two largest hospitals, as part of a larger program to strengthen Myanmar’s immediate emergency response for earthquakes considering the multi-hazard context, and to ensure safety of critical facilities. Mandalay General Hospital is a 1500-bed facility, and Yangon General Hospital is a 2000-bed facility. A large population depends on them. GHI carried out these assessments with support from UN-Habitat and in partnership with local professionals.

The assessments evaluated the safety of the hospitals’ utility systems (water, power, communications, medical gas), medical equipment, building contents, and architectural elements. If damaged in a hazard event, these elements could impede the hospital’s ability to deliver care. In unprepared hospitals around the world, disaster damage to non-structural systems has made facilities unusable for weeks or even months, even if the building’s structure is essentially undamaged.

We prepared detailed technical reports, documented the assessments with photos and videos, and provided mitigation solutions, including simple ones that hospital staff can implement with locally available materials. For example, anchoring objects can reduce damage during earthquake shaking, significantly improving hospital functionality in emergencies. By understanding the redundancy needs of utility services such as electricity, water, and medical gas supply, hospitals can plan to make these services resilient. We shared our findings and extensive recommended actions in workshops with hospital staff and government stakeholders.

Global Hospital Safety Index Customization for Myanmar (2020-2021)

Hospitals provide essential services for the community. Their safety and ability to function after a disaster are critical for community resilience. Hospital failures and loss of hospital function in multiple hazard events led the World Health Organization to develop the Global Hospital Safety Index (HSI), a checklist-based tool with a scoring system that covers various hazards, structural and non-structural aspects of hospital buildings, and the hospital’s emergency and disaster preparedness. HSI findings can inform efforts to make hospitals better able to function and deliver care in emergencies.

We adapted the Global HSI for Myanmar to enable consistent assessments that consider local conditions and building typologies. The customization introduced Seismic Hazard Categories tied to hazard maps in the Myanmar National Building Code 2016, addressed facilities with multiple buildings (common in Myanmar but not addressed in the Global HSI), divided facility-wide and building-specific data, and adapted the scoring. As part of this work, our team developed a template for back-up utilities for hospitals.

To inform the customization of the Global HSI for Myanmar, we conducted a series of virtual collaborative workshops (an approach needed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions) with members of the Myanmar Earthquake Committee under the Federation of Myanmar Engineering Societies. We further revised it while virtually assessing and testing the customized checklists in two hospitals. We conducted virtual training for local engineers on how to use the finalized checklists for assessing hospitals nationwide, as well as on how to mitigate risks to hospital utility systems, architectural elements, and equipment.