Seismic resilience of hospitals: Fid-Bau Portal

Seismic resilience of hospitals

Pianigiani, Maria

The evaluation of the seismic resilience involves many different fields and therefore requires a multidisciplinary approach. Nowadays most research in this field regards hospital buildings: this is due to the fact that hospitals play a strategic role in the management of the post-earthquake scenario. One parameter has been used, i.e. the patients’ waiting time, which is an objective and significant quantity, compatible with all the investigated aspects, and associated with the functionality of the system. The works suggests a new methodology, which is based on fragility analyses, and adopts several tools. In particular, the use of fragility curves allows to compare non-homogeneous information concerning structural and non-structural components; the waiting time, chosen as the functionality measure of the system, is measured by simulating the effects of different organizational model settings (thanks to a Discrete Event Simulation – DES – model). Three analytical models (meta-models) are built and implemented to represent all possible cases that arise by applying the methodology, in order to capture the waiting time for the patients in critical conditions. New fragility curves have been found for the hospital structure under investigation and for some of its non-structural components. A great deal of effort has been put on the correlation of all the required information, such as the statistical evaluation of organizational aspects associated with the case-study under different scenarios, the effects of physical results on the organizational setup, the correlated functionality curve variation, and the final multiple cases of resilience assessment. The main contribution of this study is the research framework, which combines the main aspects to be considered in a unique multidisciplinary methodology able to account for all the parameters involved in evaluating the seismic resilience of healthcare facilities. Given the lack of comprehensive knowledge concerning this applicative field, another merit of this work is that of contributing to increase the scientific interest in this area, to highlight its potentiality and to prompt further studies.