Clinical Research Directory

The KAEPacity Study Analyzes Hospital Emergency and Disaster Plans From Hospitals Across Germany to Evaluate How Well Hospitals Are Prepared for Crises and Disasters Organizational Structures Communication Leadership Training Are Examined Within These Plans No Medical Intervention is Performed

Hospital Emergency and Disaster Plans (Krankenhausalarm- und Einsatzplan-KAEP) are a central component of hospital preparedness in Germany. Despite national and international recommendations, considerable variability exists in structure, responsibilities, communication pathways, and training concepts across hospitals. This study aims to systematically analyze and compare KAEP documents from German hospitals using a structured qualitative and quantitative document analysis. The goal is to identify strengths, deficits, institutional influencing factors, and best-practice elements to support evidence-based improvements and harmonization of hospital emergency planning.

Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial To Assess the Effectiveness of a Heat Risk Reduction Decision Support Platform and Barriers and Facilitators of Its Implementation

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an innovative online decision support tool (Chart) that provides localized health risk assessment for extreme heat at the census tract level helps local health departments plan and prepare for extreme heat by identifying risk drivers in their jurisdictions, highlighting interventions that are effective for their jurisdiction's risk profile, and providing information regarding intervention implementation. This trial will evaluate barriers and facilitators of the tool's implementation. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does a health department using the tool have better reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of heat-health activities compared with an information-only control? 2. What are the barriers and facilitators of Chart's implementation? Researchers will compare health departments using Chart to health departments using provided heat-health information only.