natural disasters preparedness level of health service centers: a case study of dashti city

Background: the health service centers should have the ability to protect people while facing a natural or man-made disaster and present appropriate performance in disasters. objectives: the current study was designed aiming at studying the performance, structural, and non-structural preparedness level of health service centers of dashti city in bushehr province. methods: this study was performed in 2018. the data collection tool was the standard observational checklist of the world health organization. sampling was done using a census method to study all health service centers. the data were analyzed with excel software and descriptive statistics were calculated. results: in terms of the performanceandpreparedness, the investigated health service centers obtained a total score of 39.40, which showed the poor level of preparedness. in terms of structural preparedness, a total score of 77.57 was measured that showed the health service centers were at a good level of structural preparedness. the score of 56.59 for non-structural preparedness revealed a moderate level of non-structural preparedness. conclusions: the investigated health service centers in terms of performance were in a poor situation. in terms of the structural dimension, due to improvements accomplished in two recent years, the investigated centers were in a good level of preparedness; but, in terms of the non-structural elements, they were placed in the moderate level. thus, strategic planning and promotion of health service centers’ preparedness are necessary.