What is known about resilient healthcare systems in the context of natural disasters? A scoping review

Background

During natural disasters, priorities are frequently revised, and new strategies are adopted to deal with the enormity and outcome of the disaster. Understanding how resilient healthcare systems adapt and respond under these unexpected conditions is important in learning how to respond more effectively in future events to provide high-quality care.

Aim

We aimed to understand concepts and definitions of resilient healthcare from a systems perspective in the context of natural disasters.

Methods

Using scoping review methodology, as described by Joanna Briggs Institute.

Findings

Of 1011 articles screened, 18 met eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Natural disasters in the included papers were bushfires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis, ranging across five geographical locations.

Discussion

We identified broad definitions of resilient healthcare that reflect the varied healthcare systems’ responses to disasters. Definitions of resilient healthcare came from the ecology field, resilient engineering, and resilience in healthcare systems. The adaptive capacity of health systems during a natural disaster response is key to ecological resilience. Moreover, resilient engineering and resilience in healthcare determined the proposed potential of a resilient system by monitoring, anticipating, responding, and learning from disasters. Consequently, healthcare systems are recognised as complex adaptive systems.

Conclusion

This review identified that adapting and adjusting at a systems level is crucial for effective resilience in healthcare and natural disasters. Further research is needed to explore what concepts of resilience healthcare are used from a whole system perspective and how the system’s adaptive capacity supports handling the event before, during, and after the disaster.