Bioterrorism: A survey of western United States hospital response readiness

A study to evaluate the level of hospital preparedness to respond to a bioterrorist attack such as smallpox or anthrax, in the western United States (Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) was conducted from May to September 2000. A survey questionnaire was mailed to 300 randomly selected hospitals. A telephone survey followed.; The data examined the population served, licensed bed capacity, median income of the population served, the geographic location, and the type of facility served. The findings from the 177 hospitals that answered the survey showed that only 28.8% of them had a specific plan in place in the event of a bioterrorist attack to their communities.; More hospitals with large bed capacity serving large populations had plans to respond to the event of a bioterrorist attack than those hospitals with small bed capacity, usually serving small rural communities.; Although the comparison of hospitals in each of the six western states showed no statistically significant difference between the number of hospitals with a plan to respond to a biological threat, hospitals in California showed the largest percentage of specific plans addressing biological events, followed by hospitals in the state of Washington.; When the type of facility was considered, private hospitals more often developed a plan due to high-density population through their area than non-private hospitals, which indicates that bioterrorism plans may be developed when the funds are available.; The most frequent answer given for not developing a plan was lack of adequate funding. Findings indicated a need for additional resources directed to hospitals, especially in rural areas.; Because this study was conducted before the tragic terrorism events occurred in the United States in the fall of 2001, it may be considered a benchmark for future readiness evaluations of the response to the impact of those events in the Western states.