Seismic Resilience of Emergency Departments: A Case Study

Abstract

In this work, the seismic resilience of the Emergency Department of a hospital complex located in Tuscany (Italy), including its nonstructural components and organizational features, has been quantified. Special attention has been paid to the ceilings, whose potential damage stood out in past earthquakes. A comprehensive metamodel has been set, which can relate all the considered parameters to the assumed response quantity, i.e., the waiting time of the yellow-code patients arriving at the Emergency Department in the hours immediately after the seismic event. The seismic resilience of the Emergency Department has been measured for potential earthquakes compatible with the seismic hazard of the area.

Keywords

• resilience
• hospitals’ functionality
• emergency departments’ resilience
• seismic performance