Collaboration in crisis: Utilizing the SOS program, an at‐home COVID‐19 vaccine administration initiative, to demonstrate best practices in emergency management collaboration

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• Author: Beth M. Rauhaus,Deborah A. Sibila,Mary Mahan
• Date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13573

VIEWPOINT

Collaboration in crisis: Utilizing the SOS program, an at-home

COVID-19 vaccine administration initiative, to demonstrate

best practices in emergency management collaboration

Beth M. Rauhaus | Deborah A. Sibila | Mary Mahan

Department of Social Sciences, Texas A & M

University, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Correspondence

Beth M. Rauhaus, Department of Social Sciences,

Texas A & M University, Corpus Christi, 6300

Ocean Drive, Unit 5826, Corpus Christi, TX

78412-5826, USA.

Email: beth.rauhaus@tamucc.edu

Abstract

The Save Our Seniors (SOS) program was created by local government officials in

South Texas to vaccinate the community’s most vulnerable citizens amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic. The Corpus Christi Fire Department (CCFD) collaborated with

various local government entities and other organizations to identify individuals

needing the vaccine but unable to leave home. The program was soon adopted

statewide and beyond. Using data collected from interviews with the public offi-

cials and emergency management personnel responsible for the creation of the

SOS program, this Viewpoint provides information about the collaborative efforts

used to implement the program and offers best practices for collaboration in local

emergency management.

Evidence for Practice

1. A willingness of local public officials to draw upon a diverse network of organi-

zations and use facilitators are critical to ensure the success of a collaborative

community response to a pandemic or other disasters.

2. An indispensable component of emergency management collaboration is hav-

ing shared awareness of community needs and equitable solutions.

3. Innovation at the local level of government is important, as public officials

engage in emergency management, planning, and resilience.

Collaboration among nonprofit organizations, public, and

private actors are essential to disaster and emergency

management due to the attachment to the local commu-

nity and a unique awareness of the specific needs of the

community (Leach & Rivera, 2021). Collaboration is

defined as working together with intense and interdepen-

dent relationships and exchanges, which require new

ways of behaving, working, managing, and leading

(Keast & Mandell, 2014).

Traditionally, local governments face many challenges

in providing public services in an equitable, effective, and

efficient manner (French, 2011). Typically, emergency and

disaster response are designed to be bottom-up; how-

ever, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended traditional

governmental emergency management and has contrib-

uted to divisions between state and local emergency

response officials (McDonald et al., 2020).

These challenges have been heightened during the

COVID-19 pandemic, leaving local governments to

become forward thinking, innovative, and take on the

role of emergency managers to combat the COVID-19

pandemic. While there has been much research collabora-

tion and networks in emergency management, Grizzle

et al. (2020) suggests more research needs to assess how

to build and maintain diverse networks during a crisis,

such as the pandemic. This Viewpoint seeks to do so by

highlighting an at-home vaccine program called Save Our

Seniors (SOS) program. In this viewpoint, the SOS pro-

gram is highlighted, and data collected through inter-

views with the local government public officials that are

responsible for creating the program is presented to offer

best practices of emergency management with a lens of

social equity. Keast and Mandell’s(

2014) definition of col-

laboration fits this study, as leaders from various public

organizations who previously worked together in other

emergency management came together once more in a

new way (focusing on public health) to create a new inno-

vative vaccine program.

Received: 29 March 2022 Revised: 13 September 2022 Accepted: 24 September 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13573

1404 © 2022 American Society for Public Administration. Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:1404–1408.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar