Introduction:

The organization of the health system is essential to face the various disaster situations. Objective. To develop a group of actions to reduce organizational vulnerabilities to disasters in health institutions.

Methods:

Classified as development research, in health systems and services; it was mixed in methods and techniques. It compiles a group of scientific works, developed in the province of Cienfuegos, between 2001-2020. They complied with the principles of medical and research ethics.

Results:

Two initial studies (2001-2006) founded organizational and academic insufficiencies to face disasters; sixth organizational actions (mainly the color code as triage system, reordering of areas and flows, and disaster plans by function cards) were integrated as a new organizational technology that redesigned the response to sudden disasters. Between 2009-2012, the “safe hospital” technology was transferred; as results, the institutional security index was improved, the evacuation system was redesigned, new possible internal disasters were identified and vulnerabilities in hospital engineering systems were reduced. 15 vulnerabilities are also eliminated in a new specialized outpatient center since the construction stage. Between 2009-2020, were made recommendations on bases of scientific researches about the hospital organization and isolation centers, for epidemics of H1N1 and COVID-19. 27 scientific publications (including four books) show the quality and scope of significance of these results. Conclusions. New organizational elements, the definition of the methodological bases, and academic activities; they improved the institutional response, improved the disaster reduction plan, facilitated managerial work, and reduced disaster risk in health institutions.

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