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The purpose of this paper is to: explore major and potential challenges facing healthcare facilities operation specifically those related to utility supplies; and quantify the impact of utility supplies interruption on the operation of healthcare facilities through the development of an estimation model.

A pluralistic qualitative and quantitative research approach benefiting from an online computer program that applies the discriminant function analysis approach. Information was collected from 66 hospitals following three major earthquakes that struck northeast Japan in 2003.

Analysis demonstrated that healthcare utilities face three major challenges: vulnerability of infrastructure to natural hazards; low performance of alternative sources; and lack of consideration of healthcare utility supplies in resilience codes and legislations. The study also proposed a method to estimate the impact of utility interruption of healthcare facilities. A model has been developed for the case study hospitals in Northern Japan following three major earthquakes in 2003.

The findings are expected to raise the awareness of the critical role utilities play for the operation of healthcare facilities which will potentially lead to upgrading resilience codes and legislations. The findings are also expected to pool the literature with more information about the resilience of healthcare utility publications.

The topic and issues discussed in this research are original based on authors’ investigations following three major earthquakes that took place in northeast Japan. The study followed a statistical approach in addressing the inter-relationship between the utility systems post disasters to develop an innovative unique index to predict the impact of utility shortage on healthcare.

This study aims to explore the challenges associated with the integration of resilience and sustainability, and propose a workable solution that ensures resilient and sustainable buildings. Recent research outcomes suggest that the number of natural hazards, both environmental and geophysical, will increase due to the effect of global warming. Various approaches have been investigated to reduce environmental degradation and to improve the physical resilience to natural hazards. However, most of these approaches are fragmented and when combined with cultural barriers, they often result into less-efficient assessment tools.

The primary source of information used to develop this paper has been research publications, policy papers, reports and tool guidelines. A set of questions were developed to guide the review which was complemented with information distilled from the HFA 2005-2015 to develop an integration process to evaluate 10 international sustainability appraisal tools.

The major finding of this research is that, from a technical point of view, resilience and sustainability could be integrated. However, it requires a long and thorough process with a multidisciplinary stakeholder team including technical, strategic, social and political parties. A combination of incentives and policies would support this process and help people work towards the integration. The Japanese model demonstrates a successful case in engaging stakeholders in the process which led to the development of a comprehensive appraisal tool, CASBEE®, where resilience and sustainability are integrated.

Although data have been sought through literature review (i.e. secondary data), the research is expected to have significant impact, as it provides a clear theoretical foundation and methods for those wishing to integrate resilience within current sustainability appraisal tools or develop new tools.

This paper provides original concepts that are required to reduce fragmentation in the way resilience and sustainability are addressed. It sets up a new research agenda which has the potential to have a strong impact due the fact that sustainability and resilience are getting higher on the political priority scale.

This paper provides findings of an original idea to reduce fragmentation in the way resilience and sustainability are addressed. It sets up a new research agenda which has the potential to have a strong impact due the fact that sustainability and resilience are getting higher on the political priority scale.

The purpose of this paper is to explore UK healthcare resilience strategies, define gaps and provide suggestions based on international best practice.

The study adopted a pluralistic qualitative research approach to achieve its purpose including: research papers, governmental and non‐governmental reports, code and guidance documents and databases. In addition, two case studies were visited in May 2009: the first was one of the major hospitals in the UK; and the second is a major health facility located at the south of Taiwan. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with the hospitals responsible and/or emergency officers to clarify the strategies setup to respond to emergencies.

The results show that despite the “robust” emergency planning in the UK, many issues could have been avoided if international experience was reviewed carefully. This is due to the failure of not working closer with multi‐disciplinary experts, who provide technical and tactical help and lessons learned from international best practices, in addition to limiting accessibility of experts to information. The study also suggests that climate change must be addressed comprehensively through fusing resilience and sustainability strategies into a more comprehensive strategy of adaptation.

The paper provides a significant contribution in terms of reducing the fragmentation of healthcare resilience‐related work done previously; constructive criticism of UK healthcare resilience strategies and evidence of better practice from local and international facilities which will help in enhancing the resilience of healthcare facilities in the UK and elsewhere in the world.

The future of healthcare delivery will depend in part on the adaptive capacity of hospital infrastructure required to respond to the predicted physical and health‐related impacts of climate change. The purpose of this paper is to assess the vulnerabilities and opportunities of existing hospital facilities faced with climate‐related extreme weather events and to identify adaptive strategies that will enable existing hospital facilities to assist rather than hinder healthcare continuity and quality during these events.

Four major hospitals in Australia and New Zealand, significantly exposed to climate change‐associated extreme weather event risks, were selected as case studies. A risk management workshop was conducted for each case study using the risk and opportunity management system methodology.

The preliminary findings identified several key objectives associated with responding to the impact of extreme weather events on healthcare infrastructure. Assuming the overall aim of ensuring continuity of service delivery, the common objectives are: guaranteeing the availability of essential (building) services; maintaining the physical integrity of the hospital; supporting effective inter‐agency communication; and providing access to and from the hospital for staff and patients.

Given Australia's relatively high exposure to climate extremes, the social, economic and health benefits of developing hospital adaptation strategies to mitigate risks and maximize opportunities in responding are significant.

The outcomes of this research will contribute to a growing evidence base of design and facilities management adaptation strategies for hospitals susceptible to increasing risks of extreme weather events.

The paper presents the first assessment of climate vulnerabilities and opportunities for hospital facilities in Australia and New Zealand.

The purpose of this paper is to address the urgent need for guiding the construction of information systems for disease surveillance and early warning, given the latest efforts of the report system of public health information over China.

A system framework for disease surveillance and early warning, based on disease clustering test and cluster detection techniques, geographical information system, network and communication is conceived. Through geographical surveillance analysis of severe acute respiratory syndrome occurring in Beijing in 2003, an application example of the framework is illustrated.

Through approaches such as integrating spatial‐time clustering test and cluster detection algorithms, spatial visualization, computer network, wireless communication, it is feasible to build a systematic, automatic, real‐time surveillance and early warning system for prevention and control of disease.

The present study provides an underlying framework for the development of disease surveillance and early warning system enabling data acquisition, data analysis and alarm publishing.

The framework integrates report system of public health information, GIS and disease clustering test and cluster detection techniques into an application, which will significantly enhance the resilience of healthcare facilities. It is supposed to be implemented in near future and provides fundamental support for nation‐wide disease surveillance and early warning.

Power outages which may be triggered, for example, by natural hazards and system failures are a common phenomenon, associated with large impacts on society including the healthcare sector. Minimising adverse impacts effectively requires an analysis of possible impacts and the identification of measures aiming at reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience.

To systematically identify impacts as well as preparation, mitigation and recovery (PMR) measures, a moderated workshop with participants representing different healthcare sub‐sectors in Germany was conducted and complemented by semi‐structured interviews and a thorough analysis of literature. Impacts were determined for three scenarios of power outage duration, <8, 8‐24 and >24 hours.

Whereas hospitals are in general well prepared with respect to shorter outages, due to obligatory emergency power in Germany, outpatient medical care, nursing homes (NH) and, in particular, home‐care nursing are early affected. Failure of these sub‐sectors puts additional strains on hospitals. If outages last more than one day and are associated with failure of other critical infrastructures (CIs), especially water supply, hospitals may be severely affected. Effective preparation and mitigation measures identified based on a facility‐specific impact analysis, as well as good cooperation between actors, may reduce impacts.

The largely case‐study‐based literature is complemented by a systematic and extensive analysis of direct and indirect impacts on the main healthcare sub‐sectors in Germany, followed by an identification of specific PMR measures. As a novelty outage duration is explicitly accounted for. Also, interdependencies between the healthcare sub‐sectors as well as dependencies on other CI are considered.