A comparative study of public‐health emergency management
| Published date | 21 August 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570910982319 |
| Pages | 976-992 |
| Date | 21 August 2009 |
| Author | Jiaxiang Hu,Amy Z. Zeng,Lindu Zhao |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
A comparative study
of public-health emergency
management
Jiaxiang Hu
Institute of Systems Engineering, Southeast University,
Nanjing, People’s Republic of China
Amy Z. Zeng
Department of Management, Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, and
Lindu Zhao
Institute of Systems Engineering, Southeast University,
Nanjing, People’s Republic of China
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the managing of emergencies pertinent to public
health which is critical to the well-being of a society; as such, the management mechanisms employed
should be of great interest and significance for research.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper first relies on extensive literature to describe the
mechanism used in the USA from three aspects – organizational structure, management system, and
logistics network. For the purpose of comparison, the Chinese version of the mechanism is presented
from the same three aspects. The two management systems are then compared both qualitatively and
quantitatively.
Findings – Deficient areas in Chinese public-health management mechanism as well as challenging
issues associated with supply chain design and coordination for emergency supplies in the context of
large-scale public health emergencies with low frequency but catastrophic impacts are found.
Specifically, the following three important research problems are revealed from the comparative study:
how to establish an efficient organizational structure that incorporates all the relevant entities in
public-health emergency management? How to establish an information system for emergency
management that integrates disease surveillance, control, and prevention? How to design an efficient
and cost-effective logistics network to ensure prompt and sufficient delivery of emergency supplies?
Originality/value – To date, this research has been the first of its kind thatcompares two countries’
emergency management systems in the context of public health management.
Keywords Public health, Emergency measures, Organization structures
Paper type General review
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
This paper is partially supported by the project, titled “The Operations and Simulation of
Emergency Response Logistics Network in Anti-bioterrorism Systems” supported by the
Natural Science Foundation of China (70671021), “Emergency Network Synergy Mechanism for
Intercity Major Hazards” supported by National Social Science Foundation of China (06BZZ019),
and the China Scholarship Council.
The authors of this paper would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable
comments that have helped improve the quality of the paper.
IMDS
109,7
976
Received 12 February 2009
Revised 12 April 2009
Accepted 26 April 2009
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 109 No. 7, 2009
pp. 976-992
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570910982319
1. Introduction
Over the past few years, the world has grown increasingly concerned about the threat
bio-terrorists pose to the societies. A number of disastrous events have been witnessed
in the past by the world; for example, the attempt to disseminate anthrax in Japan in
1993, frequent occurrence of bioterrorist hoaxes, revelations about the bio-weapon
programs in the former Soviet Union and Iraq, and the anthrax-related exposures in
Florida, New York City and Washington, DC (US PSI, 1995; Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report (MMWR), 1999, 2001; US GAO, 2000). It is now generally agreed that a
large-scale bioterrorist attack can conceivably cause large numbers of death, and
drastically destroy local or regional health-care systems.
These catastrophic events impose a great challenge to a public health system, and
thus improving the ability to handle the emergencies has become an urgent issue. How
to cope with the emergencies efficiently and economically has attracted a great deal of
attention from governments and the scholars of all circles. US’s ability to manage the
public health emergencies is considered the best in the world, as ind icated in Political
and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC, 2003) report that compares countries’ abilities
to deal with various diseases in the world. A good example is given by how the USA
handled the bioterrorists attack in 2001 when the anthracnose powder was spread
through the country’s mail system. Although the attack created a nationwide panic, the
Department of Public Health quickly reacted to the diffusion of the anthracnose virus
and the federal medicine stockpile system provided sufficient medicines for each
regional public health department. At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) assembled a quick response team constituted by experts in
epidemiology, microbiology, management, and others. In addition, the federation,
states, and regions cooperated and communicated during the entire emergency
response process. This example shows US’s strong emergency management ability to
handle public health emergencies. In contrast, the severe acute respiratory syndrome
tragedy that occurred in China in 2003 exposed the deficiency of China’s management
ability to handle public health emergencies (Hua and Zhang, 2005). Since there was no
integrated disease reporting and warning system, the disaster could not be stopped on
time, and the slow response allowed the disease to spread more widely (Li, 2002). The
storage of the relevant medical supplies could not satisfy the needs of the affected
areas, and the distribution system was unable to ensure timely deliveries (Ge, 2004).
Since the two countries mentioned above have displayed vastly different emergency
management outcomes, and in order to conduct further research, it will be necessary
and valuable to understand the country-specific system for managing public health
emergencies. Hence, the objective of this paper is threefold. First of all, we review the
mechanisms used in the USA and China from three perspectives – organizational
structure, management system, and logistics network. Second, we summarize the
similarities and differences of the two countries’ management mechanisms. Finally, a
number of research problems regarding the management system for tackling
public health emergencies that deserve attention and further research are identified.
To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that compares two countries’ public
health emergency management mechanisms at such an in-depth level. Although the
research problems identified based on a comparison of one pair of countries, we believe
they are representative and very typical and deserve attention and study for any
country that strives to improve their public health emergency management systems.
Public-health
emergency
management
977
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