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Service Networks for Public Health and Medical Preparedness: Medical Countermeasures Dispensing and Large-Scale Disaster Relief Efforts

  • Eva K. LeeEmail author
  • Ferdinand Pietz
  • Bernard Benecke
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the International Series in Operations Research & Management Science book series (ISOR, volume 183)

Abstract

A catastrophic health event, such as a terrorist attack with a biological agent, a naturally occurring pandemic, or a calamitous meteorological or geological event, could cause tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties, weaken the economy, damage public morale and confidence, create panic and civil unrest, and threaten national security. It is therefore critical to establish a strategic vision that will enable a level of public health and medical preparedness sufficient to address a range of possible disasters. Planning for a catastrophe involving a disease outbreak or mass casualties is an ongoing challenge for first responders and emergency managers. They must make critical decisions on treatment distribution points, staffing levels, impacted populations and potential impact in a compressed window of time when seconds could mean life or death. Some of the key areas of public health and medical preparedness include medical surge, population protection, communication infrastructure, and emergency evacuation. This chapter highlights our own experience on projects with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and various public health jurisdictions in emergency response and medical preparedness for mass dispensing for disease prevention and treatment and large-scale disaster relief efforts.

Keywords

Supply Chain Management Emergency Response Facility Location Problem Medical Preparedness Public Health Emergency 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Part of the material and results reported herein are based on our work in this area and interaction with public health agencies, and discussion with many state and federal public health and emergency response experts. While there are many people to thank in this multi-agency and multi-disciplinary collaboration, the authors would like to specially thank Dr. Jacquelyn Mason of the CDC, and Tom Tubesing, formerly of the CDC, Dr. Lawler and Dr. Mecher, formerly at the Homeland Security Council in the White House, William Glisson at ESi, Bernard Hicks at DeKalb Emergency Preparedness Department, and the many public health and emergency managers throughout the nation. We also acknowledge the funding from the CDC and Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Center for Operations Research in Medicine and HealthCare, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, NSF I/UCRC Center for Health Organization TransformationGeorgia Institute of TechnologyAtlantaUSA
  2. 2.Strategic National Stockpile, Office for Public Health Preparedness ResponseCenters for Disease Control and PreventionAtlantaUSA
  3. 3.Global Disease Detection and Emergency ResponseCenter for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionAtlantaUSA

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