TY - JOUR
T1 - Building health care system capacity to respond to disasters
T2 - Successes and challenges of disaster preparedness health care coalitions
AU - Walsh, Lauren
AU - Craddock, Hillary
AU - Gulley, Kelly
AU - Strauss-Riggs, Kandra
AU - Schor, Kenneth W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2015.
PY - 2015/2/17
Y1 - 2015/2/17
N2 - Introduction This research aimed to learn from the experiences of leaders of well-developed, disaster preparedness-focused health care coalitions (HCCs), both the challenges and the successes, for the purposes of identifying common areas for improvement and sharing promising practices. Hypothesis/Problem Little data have been collected regarding the successes and challenges of disaster preparedness-focused HCCs in augmenting health care system preparedness for disasters. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of nine HCC leaders. Transcripts were analyzed qualitatively. Results The commonly noted benefits of HCCs were: community-wide and regional partnership building, providing an impartial forum for capacity building, sharing of education and training opportunities, staff- and resource-sharing, incentivizing the participation of clinical partners in preparedness activities, better communication with the public, and the ability to surge. Frequently noted challenges included: stakeholder engagement, staffing, funding, rural needs, cross-border partnerships, education and training, and grant requirements. Promising practices addressed: stakeholder engagement, communicating value and purpose, simplifying processes, formalizing connections, and incentivizing participation. Conclusions Strengthening HCCs and their underlying systems could lead to improved national resilience to disasters. However, despite many successes, coalition leaders are faced with obstacles that may preclude optimal system functioning. Additional research could: provide further insight regarding the benefit of HCCs to local communities, uncover obstacles that prohibit local disaster-response capacity building, and identify opportunities for an improved system capacity to respond to, and recover from, disasters. Walsh L, Craddock H, Gulley K, Strauss-Riggs K, Schor KW.
AB - Introduction This research aimed to learn from the experiences of leaders of well-developed, disaster preparedness-focused health care coalitions (HCCs), both the challenges and the successes, for the purposes of identifying common areas for improvement and sharing promising practices. Hypothesis/Problem Little data have been collected regarding the successes and challenges of disaster preparedness-focused HCCs in augmenting health care system preparedness for disasters. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of nine HCC leaders. Transcripts were analyzed qualitatively. Results The commonly noted benefits of HCCs were: community-wide and regional partnership building, providing an impartial forum for capacity building, sharing of education and training opportunities, staff- and resource-sharing, incentivizing the participation of clinical partners in preparedness activities, better communication with the public, and the ability to surge. Frequently noted challenges included: stakeholder engagement, staffing, funding, rural needs, cross-border partnerships, education and training, and grant requirements. Promising practices addressed: stakeholder engagement, communicating value and purpose, simplifying processes, formalizing connections, and incentivizing participation. Conclusions Strengthening HCCs and their underlying systems could lead to improved national resilience to disasters. However, despite many successes, coalition leaders are faced with obstacles that may preclude optimal system functioning. Additional research could: provide further insight regarding the benefit of HCCs to local communities, uncover obstacles that prohibit local disaster-response capacity building, and identify opportunities for an improved system capacity to respond to, and recover from, disasters. Walsh L, Craddock H, Gulley K, Strauss-Riggs K, Schor KW.
KW - capacity building
KW - disasters
KW - health care coalitions
KW - learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84925391528&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1049023X14001459
DO - 10.1017/S1049023X14001459
M3 - Article
C2 - 25658909
AN - SCOPUS:84925391528
SN - 1049-023X
VL - 30
SP - 112
EP - 122
JO - Prehospital and Disaster Medicine
JF - Prehospital and Disaster Medicine
IS - 2
ER -