All About the Phases of Emergency Management

Introduction

Health emergencies and large-scale disease outbreaks can occur anywhere and at any time. It is essential to prioritize and prepare for all medical emergencies and health threats. Organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) aim to strengthen and maintain efficient emergency management capacities. There are four phases of health emergency management. These include:

1. Prevention.

2. Preparation.

3. Response.

4. Recovery.

These phases illustrate the continuous process governments and all organizations follow during disasters, health emergencies, and pandemics to reduce their impact. All the phases are of equal importance.

What Are the Phases of Emergency Management?

The four phases of emergency management are:

1. Phase One - Prevention or Mitigation: This phase includes activities to eliminate or decrease the probability of large-scale health emergencies or disasters. The vulnerability and negative impacts of disease and disasters are reduced with the help of this phase of management. Prevention and mitigation aim to reduce the health disaster damage and help to get a long-term sustained effect. Thus, many health emergencies can be quelled or prevented before leading to extreme damage. The WHO works with partners and governments to prevent events such as disease outbreaks.

2. Phase Two - Preparedness: This phase aims to identify the personnel, equipment, and training needed for a wide range of potential incidents and disease outbreaks. Special jurisdiction-specific plans are developed for delivering capabilities at the time of need. This phase is a continuous process to identify health threats and vulnerabilities and identify the essential resources, with the efforts of all governments and private sectors. All sectors and systems of a country are prepared to manage the health risks at national levels, sub-national levels, urban and rural settings, hospitals, health facilities, emergency services, laboratories, and the overall healthcare system.

3. Phase Three - Response: This phase includes the response activities following an emergency or disaster. These are designed to provide help and emergency assistance for the casualties, including search and rescue, shelter, emergency medical care, and food). Life-saving medical interventions are implemented for effective emergency management. The casualties and affected populations are provided with quality health care and services. This phase is important to reduce the impact of the health emergency, meet needs, ensure public safety, and save the lives of many.

4. Phase Four - Recovery: This phase aims to restore the environment with a comprehensive approach. It addresses the environmental, social, political, and economic aspects. This phase includes short-term and long-term recovery activities to return vital life support systems. Once the peak of the health emergency crisis has passed, the health systems must continue to function and analyze the lessons learned (after action reviews) to build back better.

What Are the Key Components of the Prevention Phase?

Most health emergencies can be stopped or prevented before causing extreme damage. Prevention involves the various steps taken to foresee any health problems that can occur before they occur and to take the necessary measures on time. These include:

1. Strong Health Care Programmes:

• Vaccination: If the prevention phase is overlooked, it can be deadly. An example is a fall in vaccination rates for measles, a vaccine-preventable illness. This has resulted in a rise in the number of people affected with measles. It is essential to raise vaccination rates in countries with increased cases to prevent outbreaks. Vaccination is an important tool to prevent seasonal diseases such as influenza. The production of vaccines during a pandemic is closely linked to regional vaccine use.

• Public Health Advice: The public must be informed about the various precautions they need to take to prevent health emergencies like avoiding certain risky behaviors, responsible use of antibiotics, protection from mosquito bites, proper transport of toxic bio-products (in reinforced containers) and building of houses on flood plains.

2. Infection Control and Prevention:

Disease outbreaks and spread caused by viruses such as COVID-19, Ebola, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), and Middle East respiratory syndrome, coronavirus and antimicrobial resistance are serious problems that need measures for prevention. These dangerous issues, in combination with water inadequacy, poor sanitation, and health infrastructure, threaten global health security. A practical and evidence-based approach to prevent and control infections is necessary to reduce the risk of health workers and patients being affected by infections that could have been avoided with proper precautions. In addition, preventing healthcare-associated infections is equally important to ensure high-quality, integrated, and efficient health services.

What Are the Key Components of the Preparedness Phase?

All countries worldwide need to be prepared to manage risk. The key elements of the preparation phase include the following:

1. Strategic Risk Assessment: This is done before the event occurs to reduce the risks associated with health emergencies and outbreaks.

2. A Strategic Tool for Assessing Risks: This tool has been developed by WHO to enable countries to conduct an evidence-based assessment of specific risks.

3. Development or Revision of Emergency Operations Plan: This is done to provide rapid, coordinated action during an emergency to save lives and reduce the health impact. This also ensures public safety and helps to meet basic health needs.

4. Specific Plans for Priority Hazards: Specific contingency plans are made focusing on the high-priority threats and disease outbreak possibilities.

5. Pandemic Preparedness: Being prepared for pandemics such as COVID-19 and influenza is essential to manage such large-scale outbreaks.

6. Planning for Large Public Events: Large public events are necessary to alert and provide assistance on health protection, planning, and response.

7. Emergency Risk Communication: It is essential to be prepared to respond on time to avoid large-scale casualties.

What Are the Key Components of the Response Phase?

A practical response phase is essential to carry out the necessary medical interventions to save lives. In addition, the affected population must receive timely access to high-quality healthcare services. The most immediate emergency needs must be identified and met through coordinated emergency aid efforts. The government and the health partners must be ready with the essential health packages to be delivered. A network of skilled emergency medical teams and specialists must be ready to be rapidly deployed to save the lives of the affected. Emergency medical services and departments provide a coordinated response and patient care for every type of health emergency. These include:

• First aid, basic and advanced resuscitation procedures.

• Emergency department observation and monitoring.

• Disease or injury identification and diagnosis.

• Prevention of disease or injury progress.

• Triage and focus on the acutely ill or injured.

• Emergency procedures and interventions such as oxygen supply, intubation, intravenous access, or arterial line placement.

• Diagnostic tests and procedures for definitive treatment.

• Treatment coordination with other physicians and health services.

• Transfer to appropriate critical care units for definitive care after emergency management.

What Are the Key Components of the Recovery Phase?

Once the health crisis passes, it is important to continue health care and learn from the experience. After-action reviews for the emergency response used to manage the emergency are essential to identify what worked and what did not. The focus should be to arrive at a universal emergency risk management system for health. Resilient health care systems for primary health care of the masses and improving response capacity need to be achieved. It is essential to:

1. Build healthcare system capacities (including emergency medical services, family health, and mental health).

2. Strengthening early warning systems for disease outbreaks.

3. Developing a framework for health policies.

4. Improving public health programs.

Conclusion

Being prepared for health emergencies and strengthening healthcare systems are two sides of the same coin. International health regulations help to develop universal health and strengthen healthcare systems. Emergency response operations, if well-managed, deliver emergency medical interventions and health services on time that are life-saving. These directly link to the recovery stage when the immediate health crisis is past. Every large-scale health emergency (such as a pandemic) and disaster leaves new lessons to be learned to build back better.