Rural Hospital Incident Command Leaders’ Perceptions of Disaster Preparedness

In this qualitative study, hospital incident command group members from three emergency rural hospitals in Sweden were interviewed to understand their level of confidence in handling major incidents. Variables associated with higher levels of confidence included hands-on preparation; similarity with daily activities; personal mental preparedness; understanding of the interconnectedness of operations, hospital, and the region; confidence in the role, situation, and context; adaptability, flexibility, and stability; situational awareness and the amount of information; and the level of uncertainty surrounding the incident.