Public Health Leadership in a VUCA World Environment: Lessons Learned during the Regional Emergency Rollout of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinations in Heidelberg, Germany, during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to share methods used and lessons learned during a comprehensive inter-institutional pandemic disaster response in Heidelberg, Germany, conveying experiences of the regional SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rollout campaign for up to 1,000,000 vaccines in the year 2020. In this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, the following five strategic elements were pertinent for institutional arrangements so that specific contributions of the various project partners would be available fast without the necessity of extensive negotiations or information exchange: (1) robust mandate, (2) use of established networks, (3) fast onboarding and securing of commitment of project partners, (4) informed planning of supply capacity, and (5) securing the availability of critical items. Planning tools included analyses through a VUCA lens, analyses of stakeholders and their management, possible failures, and management of main risks including mitigation strategies. The method of the present analysis (VUCA factors combined with analyses of possible failures, and management of stakeholders and risks) can theoretically be adjusted to any public health care emergency anywhere across the globe. Lessons learned include ten tactical leadership priorities and ten major pitfalls.

A pyramid model to describe changing decision making under high uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Extending the emerging literature the impact of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments [24][25][26] on organisations during COVID-19, the challenges for healthcare systems, and especially hospitals in a crisis situation can be characterised through different factors which add up to a pyramid model (figure 3) of decision making.…”

The COVID-19 Infodemic: Mechanism, Impact, and Counter-Measures—A Review of Reviews

“…Situation factors are issues inherent to the situation itself that subsequently fuel an infodemic. COVID-19 evolved as a rapidly changing, dynamic situation with volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous elements [2]. There was an exponential increase of publications on the subject COVID-19 with biased peer-review and editorial processes [14,15].…”

“…By 16 April 2021, 282,912,372 cases and 5,417,212 deaths were reported globally [1]. Vaccination is expected to reduce the further spread of SARS-CoV-2, and by 29 December 2021, 9,035,158,893 vaccine doses were administered globally [1,2]. Access to vaccinations for both adults and children is an important preventive health care instrument to overcome the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic [3].…”

Global key concepts of civil-military cooperation for disaster management in the COVID-19 pandemic—A qualitative phenomenological scoping review

“…Data charting: Qualitative literature analysis, coding of significant statements and horizontalization in order to identify global CIMIC key concepts Identified publications were analyzed through a qualitative, mixed narrative-phenomenological approach as proposed by Creswell, and as applied in previous projects of similar scope published in the peer-reviewed literature (3,4,13,14). This approach was considered best for providing the highest flexibility for identification of pertinent key topics rather than analyzing data automated with pre-specified terms which would potentially miss significant statements.…”

“…The following section reviews concrete CIMIC field experiences or analyses of such (3,(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61)(62). Because disaster management during COVID-19 was generally guided by national frameworks and policies, pertinent reports in this section are reviewed grouped by country of first author in order to maintain this perspective (Figure 4), appearing geographically aggregated by continent and in descending order of overall numbers of reports per country.…”