The Impact of Organizational Agility in Prehospital Emergency Medical Services on Disaster Preparedness Perception
Özlem Bek YağmurAbstract
Objective
This study aims to determine the agility level of the prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) organization and to examine the impact of organizational agility (OA) on prehospital emergency health care professionals’ perception of disaster preparedness using a structural equation model (SEM).
Methods
This study employed a quantitative correlational research design and was carried out with 468 health care professionals serving in various roles within the 112 Ambulance Service, a public prehospital emergency health care institution operating in Istanbul, in the Marmara region of Türkiye.
Results
Among personnel working in prehospital EMS, the average OA score was 3.65 ± 0.83 and the average disaster preparedness perception score was 4.00 ± 0.71, indicating a high level. According to the results of the SEM analysis, it was determined that OA (competence, flexibility, responsiveness, and speed) has a significant and positive effect on the perceptions of disaster preparedness among personnel working in prehospital EMS, and that the explained variance (R 2 ) is 0.582.
Conclusions
The study offers a set of recommendations intended to enrich the existing literature and to enhance OA and disaster preparedness within prehospital emergency health care institutions.