Which recommendations are considered essential for outbreak preparedness by first responders?

Evelien Belfroid, Jim E van Steenbergen, Anita Huis, Marlies E J L Hulscher, Aura Timen

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Preparedness is considered essential for healthcare organizations to respond effectively to outbreaks. In the current study we aim to capture the views of first responders on what they consider key recommendations for high quality preparedness. Furthermore, we identified the recommendations with the highest urgency from the perspective of first responders.

METHODS: We chose a multistep approach using a systematic Delphi procedure. Previously extracted recommendations from scientific literature were presented to a national and two international expert panels. We asked the experts to score the recommendations based on relevance for high quality preparedness. In addition we asked them to choose the ten most urgent recommendations.

RESULTS: Starting with 80 recommendations from scientific literature, 49 key recommendations were selected by both international expert panels. Differences between both panels were mainly on triage protocols. In addition, large differences were found in the selection of the ten most urgent recommendations.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study infectious disease experts selected a set of key recommendations representing high quality preparedness and specified which ones should be given the highest urgency when preparing for a future crisis. These key recommendations can be used to shape their preparedness activities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number195
Pages (from-to)195
JournalBMC Infectious Diseases
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Mar 2017
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work was carried out with financial support from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS).

FundersFunder number
Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport

    Keywords

    • Attitude of Health Personnel
    • Communicable Disease Control/methods
    • Delphi Technique
    • Disaster Planning/methods
    • Disease Outbreaks/prevention & control
    • Emergency Responders
    • Humans
    • Netherlands
    • Triage/methods

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