Because of worldwide increase of catastrophes and recent terrorist attacks, hospitals and physicians are devoting increased attention to disaster and mass casualty incident (MCI) preparedness not only outside but also inside hospitals. In case of a terrorist attack physicians have to cope with injuries caused by conventional, biological, chemical, or radioactive weapons.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the current state of preparedness of German hospitals and physicians in case of an MCI or terrorist attack and to compare those results to the preparedness of hospitals and physicians from Austria, Switzerland, the United States of America and a worldwide collective.

Using an online questionnaire, we interviewed 1343 physicians in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the US and a worldwide collective. The replies were analyzed statistically with the Shapiro-Walk test and the Mann-Whitney-U test.

in Germany physicians are less prepared than their colleagues worldwide for disasters inside and outside hospitals. 48,4% of German physicians (37% worldwide) did not know their area of responsibility as a physician in case of an “internal” emergency (fire, water pipe burst, power cut), even though 30,2% of German physicians (29,1% worldwide) have already had a real emergency in their hospital. Only 65,3% of physicians in Germany (75,5% worldwide) knew their area of responsibility in case of an MCI; MCI training was given less often in Germany (42,7%) than worldwide (64,3%). Most physicians in every country were unaware of injury patterns and treatment strategies in patients following bombings or nuclear, chemical and biological contamination.

Hospital Physicians are insufficiently prepared for internal emergencies and MCIs. There is a need for more drills in hospitals. In spite of the recent threat of terrorist attacks, the physicians' emergency training should be modified to accommodate the increased risk of catastrophes and terrorist attacks.