In the context of crisis management the early warning system in health industry: A research in Aadana - Mersin provinces

The objective of this research is to determine the level of awareness of importance and role of the early warning systems in hospitals in the context of crisis management. A generic early warning system was also developed and proposed for the hospitals.The research covers the 50-bed or more public and private hospitals in Adana-Mersin region. The data were collected from the managerial positions such as chief, site manager, and general manager, and from medical positions such as the chief doctor, the department head, and the chief nurse.The main finding of the research is that it is a common understanding in all hospitals that there is a need for the crisis management. The early warning system is perceived as an important and indispensible component of the crisis management. However, the research also showed that there is no structured crisis management and early warning systems in almost all hospitals.It was also revealed that there is no consensus about who should be responsible for early warning in hospitals. The answers were dispersed in a large spectrum from the highest managerial level to functional unit manager to under take these responsibilities.A nother major finding of the research was about the early warning signals. In this context, almost all answers were general expression sandindicated no specific and measurable medical, financial, or technical early warning signals. Thus, it is concluded that it is very difficult to say that there is structured, well defined, and clearly assigned early warning signalling system in the hospitals.Key Words: Crisis Management, Early Warning, Early Warning Signal, Early Warning indicators.