Resilience assessment of public health system at multi-levels: An emergency management capacity quantification model for pandemic response

Abstract

Facing the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), countries and regions have implemented different policies and non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) according to their circumstances. These policies and intervention measures provide new insights into assessing local resilience from the perspective of response capacities in the public health system. This study aims to establish a multi-dimensional and dynamic resilience assessment model based on the index system method. The complete assessment model includes building a comprehensive system, executing the system in specific scenarios, and measuring resilience. The comprehensive system, like a guideline, is constructed from six key categories. The system involves the entire society, encompassing various levels, including country, state, province, city, local community, and individual. It considers not only policy formulation but also the actual implementation of the policy. The comprehensive system does not necessarily apply to all scenarios during the system's implementation. The actual case, the prevention & control in England, is introduced to assess the local resilience and verify the proposed assessment model. The results prove that our model can be used to assess local resilience for the public health system and seek capacity improvement when responding to epidemic situations.