Abstract Introduction:Mass Casualty Incidents (MCIs) present significant challenges to hospitals, often overwhelming available resources and requiring rapid, coordinated responses. Effective casualty management plans are essential to ensure optimal patient care during such crises. Key components include staff training, interdepartmental communication, resource allocation, psychological support, and post-disaster evaluation. Objective:This study aimed to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of disaster management plans in Lebanese hospitals from the perspective of emergency staff responsible for implementing Mass Casualty Management (MCM) plans. Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted with 71 emergency staff members, including chiefs and personnel directly involved in MCM, from 12 public and private hospitals across Lebanon. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire covering demographics, overall plan effectiveness, specific plan components (triage, communication, coordination, resource allocation), and open-ended suggestions. Results: Significant positive correlations were observed between staff training and perceived plan effectiveness (r = 0.528, p < 0.01), perceived triage efficiency and the staff’s perception of reduced mortality and morbidity (r = 0.505, p < 0.01), resource allocation and perceived plan effectiveness (r = 0.572, p < 0.01), communication and team coordination (r = 0.481, p < 0.01), and psychological support and staff satisfaction (r = 0.541, p < 0.01). Conclusion:Emergency staff perceive continuous training, effective communication, optimized resource allocation, and psychological support as critical to improving the effectiveness of MCM plans. Hospitals should adopt an integrated approach that combines these elements with systematic post-disaster evaluation to strengthen preparedness, staff resilience, and patient care during mass casualty incidents.
Ghazal et al. (Sat,) studied this question.