Challenges in managing, sustaining, and assessing closed point of dispensing sites: Findings from a qualitative study

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 s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one Vol. 17; no. 7; p. e0271037
Main Authors:	Rebmann, Terri, Foerst, Kyle, Charney, Rachel L, Mazzara, Rachel L, Sandcork, Jessica
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 28-07-2022 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Assessments Best practice Best practices Biology and Life Sciences Communication COVID-19 Disaster management Disaster Planning Disasters Dispensing Emergency management Environmental aspects Health aspects Humans Interviews Jurisdiction Long term health care Management Mass Casualty Incidents Medical Countermeasures Medicine and Health Sciences Methods Morbidity Public Health Qualitative Research United States United States United States > US
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Summary:	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.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 RLM and JS also contributed equally to this work. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0271037