TY - JOUR
T1 - Emergency health surge support
T2 - Lessons learned from a review of Red Cross responses, 2015-2019
AU - Lyles, Emily
AU - Diaz, Michael
AU - Ververs, Mija
AU - Sohani, Salim
AU - Michaud, Stephane
AU - Rab, Faiza
AU - Spiegel, Paul
AU - Doocy, Shannon
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to express our gratitude to the Canadian Red Cross team that supported this work, particularly Rabia Butt and Esme Lanktree for their efforts during study implementation to address the questions and needs of the research team. We are also grateful to the Norwegian Red Cross and International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ colleagues for supporting this work and to the key informants who participated in interviews, graciously answered our questions, and shared information on the various clinical and public health response ERUs and recent emergencies. We would also like to acknowledge the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Society respondents who took time to respond to the online tools, without which the research would have lacked breadth and been less diverse in the perspectives represented. Finally, we would like to thank Sharon Leslie, Katherine Mesmer, and Mariam Salama for their support in data extraction and summarization for the literature review. This study was funded by the Canadian Red Cross Society and the Norwegian Red Cross Society.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Weston Medical Publishing. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - The nature of humanitarian response has evolved in response to increasing humanitarian needs, number and scale of emergencies, and the expansion of certified Emergency Medical Teams. This research examines the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' clinical and public health Emergency Response Units in emergencies from 2015 through 2019 using a mixed methods approach, consisting of a desk review and primary qualitative data, to inform prioritization of response activities and optimization of health surge support in emergencies. Identified opportunities for improvement include needs assessment, increased modularity, contextappropriate support/integration, human resources and capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and the overall nature of health surge response to various emergency types. Greater focus on public health response; standardizing deployment criteria, standard operating procedures, and monitoring for clinical surge support; and regional and local capacity building could all improve health service quality and sustainability and facilitate more cost-effective emergency response.
AB - The nature of humanitarian response has evolved in response to increasing humanitarian needs, number and scale of emergencies, and the expansion of certified Emergency Medical Teams. This research examines the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' clinical and public health Emergency Response Units in emergencies from 2015 through 2019 using a mixed methods approach, consisting of a desk review and primary qualitative data, to inform prioritization of response activities and optimization of health surge support in emergencies. Identified opportunities for improvement include needs assessment, increased modularity, contextappropriate support/integration, human resources and capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and the overall nature of health surge response to various emergency types. Greater focus on public health response; standardizing deployment criteria, standard operating procedures, and monitoring for clinical surge support; and regional and local capacity building could all improve health service quality and sustainability and facilitate more cost-effective emergency response.
KW - International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
KW - disasters
KW - emergency medical team
KW - humanitarian emergencies
KW - surge capacity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148113025&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.5055/jem.0722
DO - 10.5055/jem.0722
M3 - Article
C2 - 36779923
AN - SCOPUS:85148113025
SN - 1543-5865
VL - 21
SP - 67
EP - 83
JO - Journal of Emergency Management
JF - Journal of Emergency Management
IS - 1
ER -