Evaluation of Public Health Emergency Management in China: A Systematic Review

Wang, Jia; Yuan, Beibei; Li, Zhengmao; Wang, Zhifeng

In health emergency management assessment practice, the types of assessments vary according to different classification criteria such as the purpose, the object, and the content of the assessment as well as the work status [10] . Research clearly indicates that there are a multitude of assessments in China. First, assessments are divided according to purpose, i.e., formative and summative assessments. For example, the evaluation of Yunnan Province's emergency health response capability and core competence assessment index system at district-level control institutions was performed to guide and advance the progress of assessment targets as well as to provide a formative evaluation of management decisions. On the other hand, in Fujian Province, the study is concerned with the state of performance appraisals regarding public health emergencies and other issues, including formulating (such as plan completion rate, emergency material reserve rate, simulation exercises) overall judgments on the purposes of evaluation institutions, including accountability and summative assessment. Second, health emergency management assessment is divided into several stages, including the preparation stage (i.e., pre-emergency evaluation), the disposal stage, the in-process evaluation, and the recovery stage (i.e., post-emergency evaluation). Thus, a preliminary discussion on the early warning index system for influenza outbreaks, the construction of an evaluation index system for hospital nurses' public health emergency response capacity, a weighted analysis of emergency public health emergency response evaluation factors, and the evaluation of emergency drill activities in county-level disease control institutions in Nanchang City are all examples of pre-assessment. In contrast, social vulnerability assessments and analyses of significant factors associated with major infectious diseases are concerned with the assessment of the nature, the type, the extent, and the determining factors of public health emergencies, while epidemiological characteristics studies and normative disposal third-party assessments are all considered post-event assessments that focus on recovery, summarizing, and long-term impact. Third, emergency management work assessment can be divided according to health status, i.e., normal and abnormal assessment. For example, the analysis and the evaluation of the present state of affairs of health emergency work in Qinghai Province was a normal assessment of the state of daily management construction, whereas the comprehensive evaluation of public health emergency implementation in the Fujian Province in 2014 was an assessment of the process and the impact of the emergency response. Fourth, assessment is divided according to the evaluation implementation body, i.e., internal and external evaluation. For example, the evaluation of the public health emergency response capacity of F hospital in Qiqihar City was an internal investigation conducted by an investigation team composed of health emergency management agencies and workers. On the other hand, investigating the epidemiological characteristics of public health emergencies and standard treatment third-party assessments are surveys that involve external evaluation from experts outside the health emergency management and work organization.