A critical illustration of the organizational and functional status of the existing public health emergency operations centers in Greece and a set of realistic proposals for their reorganization and future development

Postgraduate Thesis uoadl:2778201 357 Read counter

Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Διαχείριση Κρίσεων και Επειγουσών Καταστάσεων - Ταξιδιωτική και Διεθνής Υγεία: Διαχείριση Κρίσεων και Επειγουσών Καταστάσεων
Library of the School of Health Sciences
Deposit date:
2018-07-11
Year:
2018
Author:
Anna Tsekoura
Supervisors info:
Παύλος Μυριανθέας, Καθηγητής, Νοσηλευτική, ΕΚΠΑ
Ιωάννης Κακλαμάνος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Νοσηλευτική, ΕΚΠΑ
Θεόδωρος Μαριόλης-Σαψάκος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής , Νοσηλευτική, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Αποτύπωση της δομής και λειτουργίας των κέντρων επιχειρήσεων του τομέα υγείας στην Ελλάδα και προτάσεις βελτίωσης και εκσυγχρονισμού
Languages:
Greek
Translated title:
A critical illustration of the organizational and functional status of the existing public health emergency operations centers in Greece and a set of realistic proposals for their reorganization and future development
Summary:
Protecting human health has always been a matter of human concern of all times and any attempt to protect society against all threats that endanger public health has been constant and persistent. In the aftermath of the events of September 11th of 2001 in the United States and even more intensively after the SARS epidemic of the 2003 it was well understood that the traditional means of addressing and managing health risks are no longer sufficient to cover the new and emerging health threats in this novel and unknown era that seemed to be rising. Α period of important developments was triggered at that point at an international level with the most important to be the revision and the expand of scope and mandate of the International Health Regulations at 2005. The notion that we live in a deeply interconnected world where health risks do not recognize or respect national borders was broadly accepted. People at all levels recognized that health risks are becoming over time increasingly complicated and difficult to cope with. Thus we need to reinforce our ability to prevent, identify early and respond quickly and effectively to a variety of threats in the most appropriate way. The concepts of preparedness, response and health security were redefined and the whole concept of operations was reoriented on the basis of setting up, organizing and structuring a Public Health Emergency Operations Center as the core of any action to be taken.
In this paper, through the review of international literature and other sources, we attempt to describe in the most comprehensive way the basic organizational characteristics, structure, and activity framework of the existing Public Health Emergency Operations Centers in Greece meaning National Health Operation Center (NHOC), the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention (HCDCP) and the National Emergency Medical Services (NEMS). We collocate for each one agency separately all relevant information gathered on how historically were established and developed, the respective legislative framework and the relevant competences, the current facilities, technological infrastructure and equipment, the existing Emergency Operation Plans (EOPs) and the Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs), human recourses and any other feature that has been in any case decided to contribute constructively to our purpose.
Current developments as well as challenges emerging from the international environment pose substantial concerns about the future development of Emergency Operations Centers in our country. It is undisputed that we have important infrastructure and remarkable health professionals that are worthy of many congratulations because they have worked really hard within very difficult circumstances and a stressful context during all the previous period to keep Greece a health safe country. However, there is a need for an in depth administrative reorganization and we suggest in this paper a set of realistic proposals to turn the weaknesses into opportunities and acquire important skills so to be able to respond to future challenges.
Main subject category:
Health Sciences
Keywords:
Health security, Public health emergency management, Public health emergency operation center, Greece, Global challenges
Index:
No
Number of index pages:
0
Contains images:
Yes
Number of references:
189
Number of pages:
149
Tsekoura Anna-master.pdf (3 MB) Open in new window