Patterns of communication during full-scale emergency/disaster drills.

The motivation for developing, administering, and participating in full-scale disaster drills is multifold. Emergency drills not only test the capacity of emergency systems but also allow organizations to learn as well as improve processes and communication structures before disasters strike. They have been used as a platform to develop and maintain collaborative networks. This article examines the extent to which organizations collaborate with others during emergency/disaster drills. A social network analysis is employed to determine the patterns of communication and interorganizational networks during the planning and implementation of a full-scale emergency exercise. Specifically, we seek to understand the communication lines that stakeholders used to receive updated information, who they reached out to when standard communication channels were down, and what backup systems were in place. The research was conducted in a municipality located in north central Texas. This study was based on field observations and involved 14 face-to-face interviews with experienced public officials and first responders involved in a municipal government emergency drill/exercise. The interviews were administered after the 2017 full-scale emergency drill. Three major findings can be emphasized from this study. First, two types of organizations, namely, city fire departments and a university partaking in the exercise, played central role as a "bridge" between various organizations during the emergency drill. Second, the types of information considered important during the exercise can be categorized as strategic, procedural, and technical information. Finally, several back-up systems including ham radio, cellphones, internet back-up, and satellite were used to maintain communication channels.

Health information, attitudes and actions at religious venues: Evidence from hajj pilgrims.

Mass gatherings for sporting events, music shows, and religious needs continue to grow in our urban areas, requiring local authorities to develop safety procedures to mitigate the challenges of keeping the attendees safe. These challenges are even more pronounced at pilgrimage venues where social distancing and contact avoidance are difficult as pilgrims are required to perform various rituals in close proximity with others, in a sequential manner, either daily or weekly, as per their religious tenets. Over two million pilgrims attend the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia annually. Keeping the local and visiting pilgrims safe from crowd crush, sunstroke, skin infections, recurrence of prior medical issues, and contagious diseases requires the Saudi government to allocate huge investments for health communication and prevention programs every year. However, there is no evidence to date that has empirically tested whether Hajj pilgrims' are able to receive such information and are subsequently adopting various health promoting behaviors. This study aims to do that by framing it within the Health Belief Model. Data collected and analyzed from 245 pilgrims in Makkah between September 9th-19th, 2017 suggests that roughly 48% of the pilgrims adopted all five protective measures. However, language barriers, limited health care facilities, and difficulties in purchasing prescription mediciens were cited as impediments to adopting healthy measures. The study concludes with recommendations for the KSA government agencies, Hajj authorities, Mission authorities and pilgrims, during various phases of travel-- i.e. pre-travel, during the pilgrimage and post-travel, in light of new emerging health threats.

Ebola crisis response in the USA: Communication management and SOPs.

This research focuses on the 2014 Ebola crisis response by emergency managers in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metropolitan region in the State of Texas, U.S.A. It examines the patterns of crisis communication and the use of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) during the first month of the crisis. Primary data collected from 24 face-to-face interviews and 12 online surveys are analyzed. The research identifies elements contributing to organizational failures, which by their very nature gain public and media attention, and also explicates the less mentioned successful decisions made by response agencies in the DFW region. It is important to investigate both failures and successes to help inform organizational learning for better preparedness to future health crises. Findings suggest that, although there was a breakdown in communication between small city governments/ municipalities and higher levels of government at the State and Federal levels, prior training and collaborative relationships helped in improvised decision-making. Takeaways for practitioners include reiterating the importance of establishing SOPs, merits of flexibility, and improvisational decisions for shared learning.

Public Health Network Structure and Collaboration Effectiveness during the 2015 MERS Outbreak in South Korea: An Institutional Collective Action Framework.

Following the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea, this research aims to examine the structural effect of public health network explaining collaboration effectiveness, which is defined as joint efforts to improve quality of service provision, cost savings, and coordination. We tested the bonding and bridging effects on collaboration effectiveness during the MERS outbreak response by utilizing an institutional collective action framework. The analysis results of 114 organizations responding during the crisis show a significant association between the bonding effect and the effectiveness of collaboration, as well as a positive association between risk communication in disseminating public health information and the effectiveness of collaboration.

An adaptive governance approach to disaster-related behavioural health services.

This paper explores the provision of disaster-related behavioural and mental health (DBH) services as a problem of institutional collective action in the United States. This study reviews the challenges that providers have in surmounting multi-organizational disconnects, unstable professional legitimacy, ambiguous information, and shifting disaster needs in developing a system for delivering DBH services. Based on the adaptive governance framework, it argues that existing protocols such as the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) may be helpful in advancing collective action, but that real progress will depend on a recognition of norms, expectations, and credentials across many spheres-in other words, on the ability of responders to continuously adjust their procedures and administrative boundaries for behavioural health institutions.