Examining factors associated with emergency managers' collaborative planning with health departments prior to and during the COVID‐19 pandemic

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• Author: Sean Hildebrand,Wesley Wehde
• Date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13700

SYMPOSIUM ARTICLE

Examining factors associated with emergency managers’

collaborative planning with health departments prior to and

during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sean Hildebrand

1

| Wesley Wehde

2

1

Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA

2

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA

Correspondence

Wesley Wehde, Texas Tech University, Holden

Hall, Boston and Akron Streets, Room

014, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA.

Email: wwehde@ttu.edu

Abstract

We contribute to the growing body of research on COVID-19 and pandemic

response by connecting two bodies of existing but disparate research. Specifically,

we examine how professionalization in emergency management is associated with

collaborative outcomes. Using three unique surveys of local emergency managers

(EMs) and convergent mixed methods, we find that more appropriate types of pro-

fessionalization are more strongly associated with collaborative planning out-

comes. EMs who completed pandemic-related exercises were much more likely to

report a collaborative plan with public health being in place prior to the COVID-19

pandemic. These EMs were also potentially less negative in their opinions about

collaboration. Other measures of professionalization were less strongly associated

with collaborative planning outcomes. These results shed light on the importance

of appropriate forms of professionalization in public and emergency management

in improving collaboration and potential performance.

Evidence for practice

•Local emergency management departments concerned with future pandemics

ought to consider investing in pandemic preparedness training because these

EMs were more likely to collaborate with public health and report positive expe-

riences thereof.

•Based on regional results, hiring practices for local EMs may emphasize years of

experience over formal education when considering collaborative outcomes.

•Position type, full-time or part-time, may be less relevant for collaborative out-

comes so emergency management departments with limited budgets may be

able to reap the benefits of a lead emergency management position in terms of

collaboration and pandemic preparedness.

INTRODUCTION

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many

changes to the functions of local governments. The work-

place not only had to adjust to the realities of social dis-

tancing and other changes to office operations, but the

pandemic also required actors from different departments

to come together to address the demands of the pan-

demic. This includes local (county and municipal) emer-

gency management departments and public health offices

at the state and local levels. These departments were sup-

posed to have plans in place for pandemics as part of all-

hazards planning, and many had previous experience with

epidemics like swine or avian flu that could serve as a

model to handle the demands from pandemics such as

COVID-19 (see the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness

Act as described by Morhard & Franco, 2013). But that is

not the case for all locations, and unlike these past

instances, everyone worldwide had to address this issue in

an immediate manner.

Additionally, it is worth examining whether locations

with pre-existing plans utilized them at all, or at least

found them useful for this scale of pandemic. This is espe-

cially important as previous research suggests the use of

preparedness plans and collaborative responses are asso-

ciated with better pandemic and epidemic outcomes,

Received: 7 April 2022 Revised: 16 June 2023 Accepted: 29 June 2023

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13700

Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:1351–1366. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar © 2023 American Society for Public Administration. 1351

such as diseases containment (Ahmad et al. 2022;

Schwartz & Yen, 2017; Yen et al., 2014). Thus, we hypothe-

size about the positive role professionalization, such as

previous experience with pandemic training and response

exercises, in explaining emergency manager (EM) collabo-

rative responses, with public health, to the COVID-19 pan-

demic. We also examine the role of other dimensions of

professionalization, such as education and years of experi-

ence, in explaining collaboration as an outcome as well as

perceptions thereof. Our results suggest a measure or

acknowledgment of professionalization “appropriate-

ness”is necessary to understand the relationship

between professionalization and outcomes, such as plan-

ning and collaboration.

Local planning efforts to prepare for and respond to

any emergency, including the COVID-19 pandemic, usu-

ally involve mutual-aid and collaboration with relevant

agencies from within one’s own jurisdiction, neighboring

locations, and the federal/state level (Landy, 2008).

Whether or not a local emergency management depart-

ment has strong relationships with these other entities is

subject to many organizational factors. As we know, at

the outset of the pandemic many of these locations were

thrust into competition for resources (such as money or

personal protective equipment-PPE) or found themselves

in a bureaucratic turf war over control of the situation,

messaging, and other traditional organizational demands

(Feiner, 2020; Handfield et al., 2023). However, the

demands stemming from a pandemic mean that these

departments must work together in some manner to

share information and provide resources to the public in

an efficient and effective manner, just like any other

emergency, as this leads to improved pandemic out-

comes (Ahmad et al. 2022; Schwartz & Yen, 2017).

This article examines the characteristics of local emer-

gency management departments that included pandemics

as part of all-hazard planning efforts and/or reported forg-

ing collaborative relationships with local public health

departments and hospitals prior to the onset of the COVID-

19 pandemic in January 2020. The research draws upon the-

ories of collaboration and collaborative public management

(CPM) to propose a series of hypotheses related to the role

of EM professionalization in establishing collaborative plans

with local health departments. First, we expect that emer-

gency management departments with more resources and

with EMs with longer tenure in the job will be more likely to

have engaged in planning with health departments and

hospitals (Dzigbede et al., 2020). Second, professionalization,

as measured by EM education, experience, and training

levels, will also be positively associated with collaborative

planning and with health departments and hospitals

(Esteve et al., 2013;McGuire,2009). Third, we expect that

more appropriate and specific measures of professionaliza-

tion with be more strongly associated with collaborative

planning and response. Specifically, having participated in a

pandemic exercise, even compared to a more generic pan-

demic training, is most strongly associated with having a

collaborative plan in place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To examine these theory-based hypotheses we use three

unique survey datasets collected during the pandemic.

The results of quantitative and qualitative analysis reveal

that professionalization played a role in existing collabo-

rations, but in many cases, there is a significant divide

between these agencies as reported by local emergency

management professionals. This divide may hinder the

ability of actors to effectively address the demands of

the public with respect to the pandemic, as well as other

similar disastrous events in the future.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORY

Emergency management and COVID-19

With the rapid proliferation of the COVID-19 virus around

the world in 2020 the United States federal government

made a variety of efforts to address the demands of the

pandemic. In the years leading to the discovery of

COVID-19, the federal government took several steps to

address such an incident should it occur. This includes

the development of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Pre-

parednessAct,aswellastopromotestrategiesforfed-

eral actors to collaborate, respond, and contain a viral

pathogen (Hodge et al., 2007; Homeland Security

Council, 2005;Katzetal.,2017; Morhard & Franco, 2013;

Zurcher, 2019).Themostrecentefforttoupdatethe

National Pandemic Plan in 2017 (prior to the onset of

COVID-19) attempted to expand testing capabilities,

the use of information technology, and to expedite vac-

cine development when needed (Department of Health

and Human Services, 2017). Despite these plans, a sig-

nificant portion of the stockpile of pandemic-related

resources like PPE was reduced over time and/or

allowed to lapse in its usefulness and expire prior to the

onset of COVID-19, when that PPE became necessary

and in demand from federal, state, and local actors

(Balogun, 2020).

At the state and local level, efforts like the develop-

ment of a pandemic response plan were required by the

Disaster Relief Fund, but many actors downplayed (if not

outright dismissed) the possibility of such an incident

(Department of Homeland Security, 2021). In most cases,

these actors turned to their all-hazards and/or emergency

operations center (EOC) plans as the pandemic began.

However, many of these plans focus more on short-term

issues and greater perceived hazards in their jurisdiction,

with a pandemic falling somewhere far down the list of

potential hazards, leading to a piecemeal response effort

(Angel & Mudrazija, 2020; Benavides & Nukpezah, 2020;

Capano et al., 2020; Rocco et al., 2020; Xu & Basu, 2020).

Planning efforts in emergency management typically

involve means to ensure the continuity of government,

concepts for emergency operations logistics, mutual aid

agreements with peer jurisdictions, and to varying degrees

1352 COLLABORATIVE PLANNING WITH COVID-19 PANDEMIC