A Conceptual Framework to Measure Systems’ Performance during Emergency Preparedness Exercises

Elena Savoia, Foluso Agboola and Paul D. Biddinger
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Elena Savoia: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Foluso Agboola: Division of Policy Translation and Leadership Development, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Paul D. Biddinger: Division of Policy Translation and Leadership Development, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-11

Abstract: Large-scale public health emergencies require a sophisticated, coordinated response involving multiple entities to protect health and minimize suffering. However, the rarity of such emergencies presents a barrier to gathering observational data about the effectiveness of the public health response before such events occur. For this reason, public health practitioners increasingly have relied on simulated emergencies, known as “exercises” as proxies to test their emergency capabilities. However, the formal evaluation of performance in these exercises, historically has been inconsistent, and there is little research to describe how data acquired from simulated emergencies actually support conclusions about the quality of the public health emergency response system. Over the past six years, we have designed and evaluated more than seventy public health emergency exercises, collaborating with public health agencies, hospitals and others to test a wide variety of systems and their capabilities. Using the data and experience that we gathered, we have developed a conceptual framework that describes the essential elements necessary to consider when applying performance measurement science to public health emergency exercises. We suggest that this framework may assist practitioners and researchers who wish to better measure performance in exercises and to improve public health emergency preparedness.

Keywords: emergency preparedness; emergency preparedness exercise; exercise evaluation; measuring preparedness; performance measurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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