Objective  The health emergency knowledge level, current health emergency capacity and related influencing factors of grass-roots medical staff in Hangzhou were investigated in order to provide targeted suggestions for improving their emergency rescue capacity.

  Methods  Totally 417 medical staff in 8 community health care centers in Hangzhou were investigated by using the revised questionnaire on public health emergency response knowledge and response capabilities. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the impact of demographic factors and dimensions of health emergency knowledge on the health emergency capacity among these medical staff.

  Results  The scores of 3 dimensions of health emergency ability of these medical staff, namely first aid ability, comprehensive ability and emergency knowledge learning ability were(3.91±0.71), (3.87±0.64) and (3.73±0.70) points, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that compared with the personnel without professional title, the emergency ability score of the personnel with senior professional title was increased by 0.216 points. Compared with those who did not participate in health emergency training, the score of primary medical staff who participated in health emergency training was increased by 0.186 points. Compared with those who had not experienced emergency rescue activities, the score of those who had experienced emergency rescue activities was increased by 0.177 points. Compared with those in health care centers without complete emergency plan, the medical staff in health care centers with complete emergency plan was increased by 0.192 (P < 0.01). When the score of knowing "characteristics of major infectious diseases and response measures" in the dimension of emergency knowledge of medical staff was increased by 1 points, the score of emergency capability would be increased by 0.475 points; and when the score of "legal responsibility" was increased by 1 point, the score of emergency capability would be increased by 0.136 points (P < 0.001).

  Conclusions  At present, the grass-roots medical staff in Hangzhou had middle level of health emergency capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the health emergency training and improve their health emergency knowledge. The community health care centers should improve their emergency plans and strengthen emergency drills to further improve the health emergency capacity of their medical personnel.