Principles of Disaster Mitigation in Health Facilities

In a period of only 15 years, between 1981 and 1996, 93 hospitals and 538 health care centers in Latin America and the Caribbean were damaged as a consequence of natural disasters. This resulted in the loss of service of some 24,000 beds. The direct cost of these disasters has been enormous; just as devastating has been the social impact of the loss of these critical facilities at a time when they were most needed. Hospitals and health care centers are complex; they have high occupancy levels an