Abstract
BACKGROUND: Worldwide terrorist activities since "9/11" and subsequently also in the European region have led to a rethinking in the context of the evaluation of critical infrastructure in Germany, also with respect to security at and in hospitals. OBJECTIVE: This publication deals with the evaluation of existing concepts on topics such as "alerting", "security", "communication" and "preparation" in the aforementioned context. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Based on a literature review as well as a survey among participants of the 3rd emergency conference of the DGU (German Society for Trauma Surgery), this topic and the currently existing situation are further analyzed and presented. RESULTS: The data obtained illustrate that while the majority of hospitals have a hospital alert and response planning, the frequency of updates and intrahospital communication to increase awareness show significant variation. Furthermore, the results illustrate a heterogeneity of the existing intrahospital alerting concepts as well as a lack of security concepts and cooperation with security and guard services. Furthermore, it is evident that the topic of a possible CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) threat is not yet adequately perceived or implemented in the risk analysis. DISCUSSION: The latent threat of terrorist activities appears to have led German hospitals to address the issue of hospital alarm and response planning in their assessment as critical infrastructure and to have implemented this for the most part; however, the subordinated areas and the consequences that can be derived from alarm planning do not yet show the necessary stringency to ultimately ensure adequate responses in these special scenarios with respect to security in and at German hospitals.