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Table 3 Summary of the essential elements of public health emergency preparedness

From: Public health emergency preparedness: a framework to promote resilience

Element

Description

Governance and leadership

Vertically and horizontally integrated structures, partnerships and accountabilities to support coordinated and interoperable system functioning

Defines roles, promotes clarity and enables flexibility across system

Planning process

Dynamic process anchored in the development of relationships and clear responsibilities

Supports linkages across readiness priorities and activities

Collaborative networks

Effective partnerships share skillsets and support trust in a networked system

Enables access to expertise for a range of hazards and impacts

Community engagement

Inclusivity supporting proactive understanding of community priorities and values

Enables consideration of community risks, assets and values, and facilitates transparency and trust

Risk analysis

Process to understand risks for the community, access and analyze information

Facilitates informed planning and decision-making

Surveillance and monitoring

Robust surveillance and information processes to connect the system, key stakeholders and the community

Facilitates awareness in advance and analysis of impacts of public health actions to guide response

Practice and experience

Exercises, simulations and/or practice to promote agency and create feedback

Enables co-evolution and informs potential areas for adjustment

Resources

Scalable and sufficient infrastructure promote adaptive capacity and support decision-making

Ensures capability for mobilizing resources linked to plans and establishing priorities for the allocation of limited resources

Workforce capacity

Well-trained and knowledgeable people constitute crucial social infrastructure for the system

Supports business continuity, inter-operability and requires reciprocity

Communication

Understandable information for awareness and potential actions

Enables feedback and reach to diverse audiences when supported by sufficient capacity

Learning and evaluation

Assessments key to recovery and building back better and more likely to be successful if timely and prioritized

Fosters change and improvement for better preparedness and response