Assessment of capability of public health Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Office of Disease Prevention and Control Region 7, Khon Kaen, Department of Disease Control, Fiscal Year 2019

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) of the Office of Disease Prevention and Control Region 7 (ODPC 7). We used the EOC assessment tool which consists of 74 indicators from 10 capability elements to collect the data and define 4-level scales: 1 = no capacity, 2 = limited capacity, 3 = developed capacity, 4 = demonstrated capacity (passing score > 45 KPIs (60%) have achieved a score of 4 or demonstrated capacity). After that, self-assessment was conducted by the EOC working group of ODPC 7 and the results was compared with those of an external assessment team from the Department of Disease Control (DDC). The data were collected through documentary reviews, observation, interviews, and group discussions. The percentage of demonstrated capacity (level 4) by self-assessment and external assessment were 79.7 and 48.7, respectively, which is effectively lower than the DDC criteria. Therefore, the three core capability elements, i.e. infrastructure, framework, and critical information, should be further strengthened. Moreover, personnel capacity building, plan and standard operating procedure updates, and regular exercises should also be carried out to increase the capability of EOC in the future.