Introduction: The integration of communications and the unified coordination in interventions are essential to reduce the risk of the emergency medical personnel. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of awareness of the population and health professionals regarding the medical emergency and disaster response system as well as the importance of an integrated communication system and coordination of the involved teams.
Material and method: For the purpose of this study two questionnaires were used: initial evaluation and a rewiew. The first questionnaire was applied on a sample of 138 persons, medical personnel from several medical centers in the country (Tîrgu Mureș, Timișoara, Cluj Napoca, București). The second questionnaire was applied on a sample of 120 persons from the general public. The data obtained were statistically analysed using several methods: Friedman test, Kendall tau test, Wilcoxon test, GraphPad Prism 5 and SPSS Statistics 17.0.
Results: The statistically significant difference (p <0.05) among the mean scores obtained by analysing the answers to the first two questions contained in the first questionnaire, shows a poor knowledge related to the emergency response system as well as to the communication systems used in disasters, among doctors and nurses. The answers to the questions contained in the questionnaire applied to the general population revealed a dissatisfaction as well as a lack of knowledge about the existing emergency medical system. The presentation of the Mobile Command Centre led to a better understanding of the emergency response system as well as of the advantages of an integrated communication system in disasters, among the medical personnel and general public.
Conclusions: This study draws attention on the lack of information about the emergency medical system, disaster response and especially on the integration of the communication system between the teams involved in this kind of emergencies. The informative training performed during the second part of the study led to an improvement of the perception regarding the indispensability of an intergated communication system, among the medical personnel and the general public.