Level of Emergency Preparedness and Associated Barriers at the Accident and Emergency Ward of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital

Background Hospital EDs struggle with emergency preparedness, in the USA over 68% of 983 EDs were not emergency prepared, while in Ghana, one hospital’s emergency preparedness level was at only 57.4%. At the health facility level, several barriers to emergency preparedness have been reported, these include; poor access to - medical supplies, medications and equipment, deficits in medical training, and the absence of formal clinical management protocols. Methodology A cross-sectional study was done at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Ward of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH). Data collection was by the modified WHO HEAT checklist completed by three (3) key hospital informants. Univariate data analysis was used to determine the level of emergency preparedness and the associated barriers at the A&E MRRH. Results The emergency preparedness scores were; ED capacity - human resources (37.5%), protocols & policies (56.7%), quality improvement (42.9%) and ED resources - infrastructure (57.1%), emergency equipment (58.8%), emergency medicines (63.4%), diagnostic services (56.5%), ancillary services (66.7%), clinical services (70.0%), consulting services (71.4%), and signal functions (70.6%). Overall, an average score of 62.6% was obtained. Associated barriers to emergency preparedness at A&E were: medicines stock out (35.0%), absent emergency equipment (29.2%), broken-down emergency equipment (9.5%), medical training gaps (4.4%), inadequate medical personnel (4.4%), user fees (2.2%) and opening hours (0.7%). Conclusion In this study, we found the level of emergency preparedness of the A&E ward of MRRH to be weak. While the most reported barriers to a strong level of emergency preparedness at the A&E ward MRRH were noted as; medication stock out, absence of emergency equipment, broken and unrepaired emergency care equipment.