Development of a Public Health Emergency Management Model for District-Level Emergency Operations Centers in Sakon Nakhon Province

Abstract

     This action research aimed to: 1) examine the situation, capacity, problems, and limitations of the public health emergency management system at the district level in Sakon Nakhon Province; 2) develop an appropriate model for district-level public health emergency management; and 3) evaluate the effectiveness of the developed model. The target groups consisted of administrators and operational staff involved in Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) in four districts. Research instruments included in-depth interviews, focus group discussion guidelines, the EOC Assessment Tool, and a satisfaction questionnaire. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis, while quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

     The findings revealed that 1) All 4 Areas had prior experience in managing various public health emergencies and had established EOCs and applied the Incident Command System (ICS) to some extent.

 However, operations were largely situation-based and lacked a standardized district-level model. Pre-development assessment results showed that only 24–31% of the criteria were met. 2) The developed model Call the SAKON Model, is a strategic capacity development framework emphasizing personnel capacity building, process standardization, and integration of data and networks. The model consists of five components: Standardized Command, Area-based & Adaptive, Knowledge & Capacity Building, Operational Data & One Information, and Network & Community. 3) After implementation, the proportion of criteria met in the EOC Assessment Tool increased to 40–52% across all districts. Staff satisfaction with the model was high (mean score = 4.59), indicating a significant improvement in system readiness and operational clarity.