Institute for Biosecurity, College for Public Health and Social Justice, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, United States of America.
Saint Louis County Department of Public Health, St. Louis, MO, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 28;17(7):e0271037. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271037. eCollection 2022.
Most U.S. public health agencies rely upon closed points of dispensing (PODs) to aid in medical countermeasure (MCM) distribution. However, few studies have focused on how to assess closed POD preparedness and none have examined best practices for managing sites once they have been recruited. This study involved qualitative interviews with U.S. disaster planners to elucidate their approaches and challenges to managing, sustaining, and assessing existing closed POD sites. In all, 16 disaster planners participated. Common management practices included frequent communication with sites, providing formal and informal training, and assisting with POD exercises. Very few jurisdictions reported doing formal assessments of closed POD sites. The largest challenges identified were staff turnover and keeping sites engaged, sometimes leading to sites voluntarily withdrawing or needing to be removed from being a closed POD. Frequent communication and building partnerships with closed POD site personnel were recommended to maintain and sustain existing sites. Formal and informal assessments will provide assurance of deployment readiness. Closed POD management is a challenging, but essential process to ensure readiness to deploy. Practices outlined by this study can be implemented to enhance closed POD network management at other jurisdictions. This should increase the ability to distribute MCMs rapidly during a future event, contributing to stronger community resilience. Public health officials should continue expanding and improving closed POD networks to enable MCM delivery and minimize morbidity and mortality related to mass casualty events.
大多数美国公共卫生机构依赖于封闭式分发点（POD）来协助医疗对策（MCM）的分发。然而，很少有研究关注如何评估封闭式 POD 的准备情况，也没有研究过一旦招募了 POD 站点，如何管理这些站点的最佳实践。本研究通过对美国灾害规划者进行定性访谈，阐明了他们在管理、维持和评估现有封闭式 POD 站点方面的方法和挑战。共有 16 名灾害规划者参与了研究。常见的管理实践包括与站点频繁沟通、提供正式和非正式培训以及协助 POD 演习。很少有司法管辖区报告对封闭式 POD 站点进行正式评估。确定的最大挑战是人员流动和保持站点参与度，有时会导致站点自愿退出或需要从封闭式 POD 中撤出。建议与封闭式 POD 站点人员保持频繁沟通和建立伙伴关系，以维持和维持现有站点。正式和非正式评估将提供部署准备情况的保证。封闭式 POD 管理是确保准备好快速部署的一项具有挑战性但必不可少的过程。本研究概述的实践可以在其他司法管辖区实施，以加强封闭式 POD 网络管理。这将提高在未来事件中快速分发 MCM 的能力，有助于增强社区的弹性。公共卫生官员应继续扩大和改进封闭式 POD 网络，以实现 MCM 的交付，并最大限度地减少与大规模伤亡事件相关的发病率和死亡率。
