Page 164 - Timeliness of Infectious Disease Notification & Response Systems - Corien Swaan
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162 Chapter 7
be applicable for other countries, as health systems and preparedness proce- dures vary between countries. The study was performed a year after the main increase of preparations, which can be seen as another limitation as this might have led to recall bias among participants. To mitigate such bias, experiences among participants were recollected during the focus group sessions.
As executers of this study, the CID was not included as stakeholder in the study. A focus group for the CID was performed separately; these results were not included in the earlier described results. The main outcomes however, were comparable with outcomes of the study. An additional outcome was the ques- tion on the role of the regional medical emergency preparedness and planning offices (GHOR) in the Netherlands. In the plenary meeting their role, especially regarding organizing exercises, was discussed. It was concluded that this stake- holder should be incorporated in the multisectoral preparedness guidelines.
Preparedness for the possible introduction of a patient with suspected EVD was a major effort for both the curative sector and the public health sector, on regional and central levels. This evaluation study provides a unique opportunity to share regional and national experiences between these sectors on nation- al level, and provides a stepping stone to reach a common agenda for future contingency planning for emerging infections. Our study shows that coordina- tion between the public health and curative sector requires improvement by standardizing preparedness and response practices to reduce delay in patient management. As a result of this study, in the Netherlands a national platform for preparedness is established, in which both the curative sector and the public health sector participate to implement the outcomes of this study. Guidelines for institutional preparedness and blueprints for regional and national coordi- nation will be developed, as preparedness for emerging infectious diseases is a multidisciplinary exercise overarching both the public health sector and the curative sector.































































































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