The Adaptive Response Metric

Abstract

Local health departments are organized, resourced, and operated primarily for routine public health services. For them, responding to emergencies and disasters requires adaptation to meet the demands of an emergency, and they must reallocate or augment resources, adjust work schedules, and, depending on severity and duration of the event, even compromise routine service outputs. These adaptations occur to varying degrees regardless of the type of emergency or disaster. The Adaptive Response Metric was developed through collaboration between a number of California health departments and university-based preparedness researchers. It measures the degree of "stress" from an emergency response as experienced by local health departments at the level of functional units (eg, nursing, administration, environmental services). Pilot testing of the Adaptive Response Metric indicates its utility for emergency planning, real-time decision making, and after-action analytics.

Public Health Emergency Preparedness System Evaluation Criteria and Performance Metrics: A Review of Contributions of the CDC-Funded Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers

“…Schuh et al and Potter et al studied how responding to an emergency affects the routine functions of health departments 37 . The investigators developed and pilot tested the Adaptive Response Metric tool.…”

“…In spite of the challenging nature of the task, our review found that the PERRCs made important contributions towards filling some knowledge gaps in the area of PHEPR system evaluation criteria and performance metrics development and validation. For example, the Adaptive Response Metric tool for measuring the unequal impact of incident response on health department functions or subunits, 36 , 37 combined use of a Critical Incident Registry and peer assessment for after-action learning, 25 , 26 and the Preparedness Capacities Assessment Survey to assess health department capacities and performance 9 . illustrate promising approaches to PHEPR system performance monitoring for program improvement.…”