RAPID: Spontaneous Planning, Governance Structure, and a Public Health Emergency: Ebola in Dallas Texas

University Of North Texas, Denton TX

Investigators

Abstract

The Ebola virus became a part of household conversations in October of 2014. The United States experienced its first death and witnessed the spread of the infection to its citizens. The presence of a deadly infection in our urban areas highlights the importance of coordination among leaders and decision-makers. Dealing with insufficient expertise in emergencies as complex as an Ebola outbreak can be dangerous. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) research project will have a big impact on society by helping to understand the barriers in decision-making that exist between the fields of governance, emergency management, and public health. The investment of public funds in this project will advance the understanding of collaboration among these three professions. Further, it will support the development of an alternative decision-making model that can be used in emergencies that will bring far-reaching public value. As we understand how these three fields created public policy "on-the-fly" or spontaneously, it will inform public leaders on how to manage and maintain flexibility in a public health crisis, thus benefiting society. The research team will study how officials overcome barriers to governance and integrate spontaneous planning in a public health emergency. Multiple methods including interviews and the administration of a survey will be used to achieve these objectives. In particular, the team will interview the principle actors in the Ebola crisis, in the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) area, including the Dallas County judge, mayor, city manager, emergency management coordinator, the lead epidemiologist, hospital leadership, representatives from the Centers of Disease Control and their local counterparts. They will determine through these interviews multi-actor response protocols. At this point, they will evaluate these interviews to identify themes, through a content analysis process. These themes will then be used to generate further questions to distribute to other local leaders adjacent to Dallas County in the DFW area. Finally, they will measure and analyze the results of the questionnaire using statistical processes.