Afetlerde Bilgi ve Teknoloji Yönetimi: G.Antep ve K.Maraş Hastanelerinde Bir Alan Araştırması

Afet, BirleşmişMilletler tarafından en genel ifadeyle “insanlar için can, fiziksel, ekonomik ve sosyal kayıplara neden olan, normal yaşamıdurdurarak veya kesintiye uğratarak toplumlarıetkileyen ve yerel imkânlar ile başedilemeyen her türlü doğal, teknolojik veya insan kaynaklıolaylar” olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Hastaneler afet durumlarında kritik öneme sahip olan kurumlardır. Afetlerde hastanelerin işlerliklerini sürdürmeleri ve dayanıklıbir yapıya sahip olmalarıkritik önem taşımaktadır. Bunu sağlayabilmeleri için hastanelerin etkin bir bilgi ve teknoloji yönetimi alt yapısına sahip olmalarıgerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada, afet durumlarında çok kritik bir öneme sahip olan hastanelerdeki bilgi ve teknoloji yönetimi süreci ve bununla ilgili hastanelerin sahip olmasıgereken yetenekler ele alınmaktadır. Bu çalışma kapsamında Gaziantep ve Kahramanmaraşillerinde faaliyet gösteren kamu ve özel sektör hastanelerinde anket uygulamasıyapılmıştır. Ankette hastanelerin afet durumlarında gösterdikleri bilgi yönetimi ve bilgi teknolojisi altyapıyetenekleri ile ilgili sorular yöneltilmiştir. Hastanelerin bilgi yönetimi ve bilgi teknolojisi altyapıyeteneklerinin farklı şehirlerdeki ve farklıtürlerdeki hastaneler arasında önemli bir farklılık gösterip göstermediği test edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, hastanelerin afet durumlarında sorunsuz bir şekilde işlerliğini sürdürebilmesi için öncelikle sağlam bir bilgi güvenliği ve bilgi teknolojisi alt yapısına sahip olmasıgerektiği vurgulanmıştır.

According to the definition of United Nations, disaster is defined as “a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources”. Disasters destroy not only the physical capital but also human and social capital Dynes, 2005 . Emergency management, on the other hand, is defined as “applying science, technology, planning, and management to deal with extreme events that can injure or kill large numbers of people, do extensive damage to property, and disrupt community life” Drabek, 1991 . It is of critical importance for hospitals to sustain their functionality and to be resilient during disasters. In order to achieve this, hospitals must have an efficient information and technology management infrastructure. Information and technology management refers to the process that facilitates organizations to meet their goals, that improves the effectiveness of organizational functions, and that optimizes the relationships between the organization and its internal and external customers. It is of great importance for the information and management resources and tools to enable the organizations achieve their goals by efficient and rational management of these resources Öğüt, 1999 . The capabilities provided by the information and communication technologies are the main resource for all types of organizations, including the hospitals. The prior research indicates that information and technology infrastructure facilitates the information sharing in hospitals and enables to create quality information. Therefore, information and technology management practices in hospitals should be reliable and continuous not only in normal situations but also in disasters. In this study, information and technology management process that have critical importance in hospitals during disasters was investigated. The study examines the level of the continuity hospitals’ information technology infrastructure shows and the extent to which hospitals are able to meet their information needs. In the context of this study, a survey was conducted in public and private hospitals located in Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş provinces in Turkey. The survey was sent to fifty hospitals operating in these provinces. Of these fifty hospitals, forty five have returned the survey which leads us to have a response rate of 90%. The survey was structured to have two sections: capabilities related to information management and capabilities related to information technology infrastructure. The survey was developed based on several resources in prior literature TTB, 2009; Top et al., 2010; Bharadwaj, 2000; Brown, 2001 . The survey questions were measured with five point Likert type scale 1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree . In data analysis, statistical methods, such as percent, frequency analysis, and independent samples t-test, were used. The data analysis was done by SPSS 17.0 statistical software package. Sixty seven percent of the hospitals operate in the province of Gaziantep, while thirty three percent of the hospitals operate in the province of Kahramanmaraş. Also, sixty percent of the hospitals are public sector hospitals and forty percent of the hospitals are private sector hospitals. On an average, the survey responders state that they agree with the statements concerning several information management capabilities e.g., ability to do registration and acceptance transactions when the computer system is down, ability to provide information security, and ability to collect and share the information in critical situations . The majority of the survey responders mention that they are undecided regarding the situation of data storage capabilities during disasters. On the other hand, of the capabilities related to the information technology infrastructure, survey responders state that they disagree with the statements regarding the computers, computer networks, servers, and online systems, and their functionality during disasters. In other words, they believe that their hospitals do not possess these capabilities. The responders note that they are undecided about providing the security of the information technology infrastructure and continuity of the mobile systems during disasters. The following hypotheses were tested in the context of the current study: Hypothesis 1: There is a significant difference between Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş hospitals in terms of the information management capabilities during disasters. Hypothesis 2: There is a significant difference between Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş hospitals in terms of the information information technology infrastructure capabilities during disasters. Hypothesis 3: There is a significant difference between the public and private sector hospitals in terms of the information management capabilities during disasters. Hypothesis 4: There is a significant difference between the public and private sector hospitals in terms of the information information technology infrastructure capabilities during disasters. The findings from the current study reveal that hospitals should take measures to enable the continuity of information technology infrastructure at hospitals not only in normal situations but also during disasters. Therefore, hospitals should hire experts involved in these subjects and channelize the resources into the improvement of the technology infrastructure. Another finding shows that the province of Kahramanmaraş have higher levels of information management capabilities, including data storage, registration and acceptance transactions, information security, in comparison with the province of Gaziantep. There is no statistically significant difference between these provinces in terms of the other capabilities regarding the information management and information technology infrastructure. We conclude that both provinces have similar awareness and preparedness with regards to the capabilities under discussion. The last but not the least is that private sector hospitals have higher levels of information security capabilities as compared to the public sector hospitals. In addition, private sector hospitals have superior operability and continuity capabilities at disasters with respect to the computers and the systems in which the data are stored. Finally, both type of hospitals have same level of information management and information technology infrastructure capabilities. As a result of this research study, it has been argued that hospitals are of critical significance not only in normal situations but also during disasters. It is of utmost importance for the hospitals to have seamless functionality during disasters in order to reduce the adverse impacts of the disasters and to protect the people who suffered from them. In order for hospitals to fulfill these needs, they should have robust information technology and security infrastructure. The hospitals that have awareness and adequate levels of preparedness will be able to seamlessly provide health services during and aftermath of the disasters