Quantifying Disaster Impacts on Local Public Health Agency’s Leadership, Staffing, and Provision of Essential Public Health Services

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the impact that natural disaster response has on local health departments’ (LHD) ability to continue to provide essential public health services. Methods: A web-based survey was sent to all North Carolina Local Health Directors. The survey asked respondents to report on LHD functioning following Hurricanes Florence (2018) and Dorian (2019). Results: After Hurricane Florence, the positions who most frequently had regular duties postponed or interrupted were leadership (15 of 48; 31.3%), and professional staff (e.g., nursing and epidemiology: 11 of 48; 22.9%). Staffing shelters for all phases – from disaster response through long-term recovery – was identified as a burden by LHDs, particularly for nursing staff. Approximately 66.6% of LHD jurisdictions opened an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) or activated Incident Command System in response to both hurricanes. If an EOC was activated, the LHD was statistically, significantly more likely to report that normal duties had been interrupted across every domain assessed. Conclusions: The ability of LHDs to perform regular activities and provide essential public health services is impacted by their obligations to support disaster response. Better metrics are needed to measure the impacts to estimate indirect public health impacts of disasters.

Post-epidemic health system recovery: A comparative case study analysis of routine immunization programs in the Republics of Haiti and Liberia

“…The revised Essential Public Health Services framework ("the Framework") emerged as a possible cross-case comparative tool (see Fig 1) [22]. Fitter et al have applied this framework to examine post-earthquake and -cholera health system recovery in Haiti, while others have described it as a roadmap for post-disaster community revitalization [23][24][25]. Additionally, the Public Health National Center for Innovations and the de Beaumont Foundation recently led an effort to revise the Framework to more explicitly center health equity considerations [26].…”

Importance of continuing health care before emergency hospital evacuation: a fatal case of a hospitalized patient in a hospital within 5 km radius of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant: a case report

“…Author details 1 Faculty of Medicine, Teikyo University, Itabashi-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. 2 Department of Surgery, Jyoban Hospital of Tokiwa Foundation, Iwaki, Fukushima, Japan. 3 Research Center for Community Health, Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital, Minamisoma, Fukushima, Japan.…”

“…Disasters cause a wide range of short-and long-term health problems. Short-term impacts include problems related to supplies and lifelines [1,2], medium-term impacts include problems related to physical and mental functional decline while living in shelters [3,4], and longterm impacts include problems related to the rebuilding of communities in the affected areas [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Although risk management efforts, risk reduction frameworks, and relevant policies continue to address disasters and strengthen disaster management efforts, minimizing the impact of disasters remains challenging [11].…”

Comparison of Laws that Impact Volunteer Response in Three Disaster-Prone Southeastern States

“…Effective response depends on resource augmentation, particularly through increased capacity of volunteers who can provide critical services across and between impacted states. However, surges in service demands, inadequate/low-quality staffing, scarcity of resources, and complex legal environments constrain the deployment of volunteer health professionals 1-3,4…”