Junior Investigator Program

Wildfires can disrupt hospital operations through direct fire exposure, smoke intrusion, infrastructure strain, evacuation risk, and regional patient redistribution. Existing reviews have focused more broadly on wildfire-related emergency department impacts, emergency medical services response, or hospital evacuation across hazards, rather than specifically on how hospitals and acute-care systems preserved service continuity during wildfire-related disruption. This review synthesised peer-reviewed and selected gray-literature evidence on evacuation, transfer, surge response, and early recovery strategies used to maintain acute-care access during wildfire events.

We conducted a systematic review of studies and operational reports describing wildfire- or bushfire-related disruption to hospitals and acute-care services. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus using controlled vocabulary and text words related to wildfires, hospital and critical care settings, and evacuation, transfer, continuity, and recovery processes. We also undertook targeted gray-literature searching using structured Google web searches and searches of relevant hospital, health-system, emergency-preparedness, and government websites. Eligible records included hospital- or system-level reports of evacuation, transfer, service continuity, operational response, or early recovery during real wildfire events. Two reviewers independently screened records and extracted data on setting, disruption type, operational strategies, and reported outcomes. Given expected methodological heterogeneity, findings were synthesised narratively.

Junior investigators on this project would contribute to title and abstract screening, full-text review, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. Those who complete earlier phases would contribute to assigned sections of the manuscript draft. Training on all procedures will be provided.