Hospital facility resilience: An adaptation framework for extreme weather events

The fragility of hospital built infrastructure to extreme weather events has been widely acknowledged. However, the way in which hospital stakeholders interact with their built environment during such events has not. To address this important but missing element in hospital resilience thinking, a content analysis of thirteen hospitals disaster planning documents is reported. Using resilience and learning theories, the role of built environment assets in disaster management planning strategies is discussed. A conceptual framework is proposed to help hospital stakeholders learn about and adapt to their built environment in response to extreme weather events. This framework provides new insights, both theoretical and practical, into the important role of hospital infrastructure to healthcare delivery during such events.