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More than technology: Experiences of Virtual Emergency Operations Centers (VEOCs) during the COVID-19 pandemic response in Canada
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated emergency management offices and organizations across Canada to activate their Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in a virtual capacity due to government restrictions limiting in-person activities and with the goal of reducing the spread of the virus. The aim of this exploratory research paper is to document the personal experiences of Canadian emergency management professionals working in a Virtual EOC (VEOC) environment during the COVID-19 response, including challenges and benefits they experienced, as well as lessons identified. Based on a sample of 81 emergency management professionals and using an inductive coding approach, the survey results illustrate both technological and nontechnological challenges and benefits. The findings highlight the need to incorporate three main elements into VEOC planning and operations: technology, processes, and people.
... Notably, many PHEOCs had not scaled up their Incident Command System (ICS) or Incident Management System (IMS) to the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic [9], leading to gaps in training and preparedness. In addition, rapid shifting to virtual operations underscored the critical need for digital and information technology supports and continuity of operations [10]. The pandemic response was further complicated by the transition to remote work and the reliance on Virtual Emergency Operations Centers (VEOCs), which highlighted the need for more accessible MSVM. ...
... 10. What information was analyzed using MSVM in your HEOC/EOC during the COVID-19 response? ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed life and work patterns and reshaped the healthcare industry and public health strategies. It posed considerable challenges to public health emergency operations centers (PHEOCs). In this period, digital technologies such as modeling, simulation, visualization, and mapping (MSVM) emerged as vital tools in these centers. Despite their perceived importance, the potential and adaptation of digital tools in PHEOCs remain underexplored. This study investigated the application of MSVM in the PHEOCs during the pandemic in Canada using a questionnaire survey. The results show that digital tools, particularly visualization and mapping, are frequently used in PHEOCs. However, critical gaps, including data management issues, technical and capacity issues, and limitations in the policy-making sphere, still hinder the effective use of these tools. Key areas identified in this study for future investigation include collaboration, interoperability, and various supports for information sharing and capacity building.
... As a multidisciplinary disaster response beyond jurisdictional boundary becomes prevalent, the needs for a 'virtual' command center also increased. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of the virtual emergency operation facilities due to associated restrictions, such as social distancing and mandatory quarantine (Delisle et al. 2021;Farcas et al. 2021). Considering the incipient efforts regarding the virtual command center, future challenges associated with the virtual incident command and coordination need to be better understood. ...
Recent disasters occurring as natural events, industrial incidents, and public health crises, impose unprecedented challenges to humans and communities. Increasing uncertainty and complexity of disasters require multidisciplinary research efforts due to various elements involved in a disaster management system (DMS). Despite the growing body of knowledge regarding disasters, an Ergonomics approach toward the DMS is still limited. To address such a research gap, the current paper presents a Disaster Ergonomics framework that incorporates three essential system elements: demands from a disaster, strategies of responders and response organizations to satisfy the demands, and disaster tools and technologies to bridge the demands and the strategies. Especially, the framework is built upon three pillars of the DMS: resource management, command and coordination, and information and communication. As a form of simple validation, an analysis of 2017 Hurricane Harvey was conducted in line with the framework. Recommended future research topics and directions for full validation of the Disaster Ergonomics framework are also discussed.
Qualitative research has gained in importance in the social sciences. General knowledge about qualitative data analysis, how to code qualitative data and decisions concerning related research design in the analytical process are all important for novice researchers.
The purpose of this paper is to offer researchers who are new to qualitative research a thorough yet practical introduction to the vocabulary and craft of coding.
Having pooled, their experience in coding qualitative material and teaching students how to code, in this paper, the authors synthesize the extensive literature on coding in the form of a hands-on review.
The aim of this paper is to provide a thorough yet practical presentation of the vocabulary and craft of coding. The authors, thus, discuss the central choices that have to be made before, during and after coding, providing support for novices in practicing careful and enlightening coding work, and joining in the debate on practices and quality in qualitative research.
While much material on coding exists, it tends to be either too comprehensive or too superficial to be practically useful for the novice researcher. This paper, thus, focuses on the central decisions that need to be made when engaging in qualitative data coding in order to help researchers new to qualitative research engage in thorough coding in order to enhance the quality of their analyses and findings, as well as improve quantitative researchers’ understanding of qualitative coding.
When a disaster strikes, the well-being of Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) personnel is often not the first priority for emergency managers working to help provide support to their local community and the incident command site. Through the development and testing of an iterative series of simulation exercises with EOC personnel, this study identified adverse psychosocial outcomes that may emerge within an EOC during an emergency. Having identified a number of practices which led to less than desired psychosocial outcomes, researchers developed a training and awareness video to identify the practices and demonstrate strategies to overcome negative impacts. A comparative analysis was undertaken to compare EOC actions pre- and post-exposure to the video. The results indicated a change in behaviour following the viewing of the video and supported training initiatives that stress the importance of strong leadership in an EOC, encouraging staff to take breaks, respecting diversity, and providing psychosocial support.
This paper presents exploratory research into how local government emergency operations centres (EOCs) are used during emergency management preparedness activities, through a questionnaire survey of 48 organisations from New Zealand, Canada, and USA. Analysis was framed by defining effective emergency management as a person-environment fit process in which both person (competence, response management system) and environment (e.g., need for multi-agency response, decision making about complex, evolving emergencies) characteristics should be modelled in training. Each organisation was unique in their approach and the extent their EOC was active during training. Training tended to focus on implementing the structural model (e.g., CIMS) and less on developing the competencies necessary for people to operate effectively at a tactical or coordinating level of emergency management. There was recognition of a need to further develop approaches to training, with 63% of organisations stating that they would like more guidance and advice in emergency management training.
The common operational picture is used to overcome coordination and information management problems during emergency response. Increasingly, this approach is incorporated in more advanced information systems. This is rooted in an ‘information warehouse’ perspective, which implies information can be collected, sorted and exchanged in an accessible and univocal form. In practice, however, professionals interpret similar information differently. Therefore, we focus on how emergency responders develop collective sensemaking from information. We employ a ‘trading zone’ perspective, in which information is negotiated, to study information management in an ethnographic study of disaster exercises in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows how professionals attribute different meanings to information that distorts the coordination process. We end by stressing the importance of actionable knowledge and reflexivity.
Stakeholders involved in emergency management multi-agency coordination require information to inform their situation awareness to plan and coordinate their response and mitigation strategies. This study investigates the perceived information requirements of senior strategic level emergency management personnel and how they obtain this information. The results are based on empirical data from two sources: an organisational survey and observational study during an emergency event. The findings indicate that the most influential cognitive artefacts used to obtain information are in person communication and use of specialised application software. However, challenges associated with using the latter can result in an increased use of in person communication which can limit the exchange of information throughout the system of actors. Understanding the strengths and limitations of how these stakeholders obtain information in this Australian emergency operations centre to inform their situation awareness is essential in facilitating multi-agency coordination in this environment.
Collecting and sharing timely, reliable and accurate information during a crisis is critical to improving humanitarian response,
maximizing resources and minimizing human suffering. The faster humanitarian organizations are able to collect, analyse and
disseminate critical information, the more effective the response becomes and the more lives are potentially saved. Though
humanitarian information functions, systems and tools have improved in the past five years, a combination of operational,
funding and technical constraints, combined with a lack of awareness, continues to handicap information from becoming a core,
wellresourced component of relief operations.
A general inductive approach for analysis of qualitative evaluation data is described. The purposes for using an inductive approach are to (a) condense raw textual data into a brief, summary format; (b) establish clear links between the evaluation or research objectives and the summary findings derived from the raw data; and (c) develop a framework of the underlying structure of experiences or processes that are evident in the raw data. The general inductive approach provides an easily used and systematic set of procedures for analyzing qualitative data that can produce reliable and valid findings. Although the general inductive approach is not as strong as some other analytic strategies for theory or model development, it does provide a simple, straightforward approach for deriving findings in the context of focused evaluation questions. Many evaluators are likely to find using a general inductive approach less complicated than using other approaches to qualitative data analysis.
This paper discusses challenges to coordination in the emergency operations center (EOC). A county-level EOC is made up of
representatives from a range of organizations including local government, fire, police, hospital, utility, and Red Cross representatives.
These ad hoc teams are tasked with coming together during an emergency to obtain and deliver resources to first responders
on the scene of the disaster, as well coordinating transportation of casualties, tracking of fatalities, and establishment
of shelters. Two county-level exercises were observed. Themes were identified across the two exercises. Recommendations for
better supporting coordination in crisis management are offered.
Disaster management, before, during, and after the event, is dynamic, complex, and ill-defined, and the events themselves are rare and diverse due to the many characteristics that define them. Prior decisions may be thoroughly documented via after action reports, but these may not cover every issue as frequently unique and unanticipated events arise during each emergency. The nature of the decisions, where they are made, who makes them, the data and information resources required to make and monitor them, and the location of available knowledge to drive them may sometimes be unknown, unavailable, or both. This paper describes the research activities of Project Ensayo, which seeks to support and enable multiple research projects investigating processes, functions and structures present at Emergency Operations Centers, including situational awareness, knowledge management, inferences from dynamic data, disaster management and mechanisms of command, control, communication and coordination.
Based on an inductive analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews, extensive field observation, and document material, we introduce the concept of reproductive improvisation, an improvisation form that emphasizes reproducing something valued that is lost. We address how an organization might choose sameness in turbulent and ambiguous environments, and how it achieves that goal. Using the reestablishment of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) following its destruction during the September 1l, 2001 World Trade Center disaster in New York City, we discuss how factors such as system stability, pressures to maintain the status quo, substitution accessibility, and retaining a preexisting mental map that develops into a shared vision all facilitate reproductive improvisation. This research differs from most other work on improvisation (e.g., Weick, 1998) that focuses on improvising to generate something new. Here we focus on improvising to generate something that is, as much as possible, the same as a previous model. We therefore add a new perspective on the usual thinking of improvisation and organizations responding to changing environments.
Objective:
The emergency operations center (EOC) is an essential component of modern emergency management. Traditionally understood as a place where officials communicate with the public, support coordination, manage operations, craft policy, gather information, and host visitors; there has been little recent research on their structure, operations, or work procedures. EOCs may in fact be, as we argue here, places where emergency managers come to find workarounds, delegate tasks, and find new sources of expertise in order to make sense, make meaning, and make decisions. However, despite their status as a symbol of emergency management and recipients of large amounts of funding, there has been relatively little scientific research into the EOC. With this paper, we synthesize the existing research and propose a variety of research questions to accelerate the process of inquiry into the EOC.
Design:
Informed by an extensive literature review, this article presents a comprehensive look at the existing state of knowledge surrounding EOCs.
Interventions:
Research questions to support investigation of the EOC are suggested.
Conclusions:
The EOC is an underexplored setting ripe for development and discovery by researchers and emergency managers seeking to influence the field of emergency management.
Qualitative research methods contend with debates surrounding
subjectivity and bias. Researchers use a variety of techniques to help
ensure data trustworthiness. One such technique is to involve multiple
coders in data analysis. The deliberative nature of codebook development
among multiple coders produces rich data analysis that may not otherwise
be achieved with a single (or even two) researcher(s). In this manuscript,
we make a plea for researchers and journals to include data analysis
procedures and descriptions in published literature. In addition, we
illustrate minimal reporting of qualitative data analysis processes through
a synthesis of 21 years of agricultural best management practice adoption
literature. We present two rural agricultural case studies on multi-coder
team codebook development and intercoder reliability processes specific
to interviews, focus groups, and content analysis. Overall, we argue that
multi-coder teams can improve data quality, and reporting data analysis
procedures can mitigate implications of subjectivity in qualitative methods.
Few studies exist on Emergency Operating Center (EOC) location and design. In response to the lack of literature on the topic, this study describes some basic characteristics of four EOCs located in central Alabama. The results of the study show that convenience and availability determine the EOC site selection. The EOCs in the study have dedicated areas for offices, operations, and meetings. In a perfect world, the respondents in the study recommended that EOCs should have sleeping areas, showers, cooking facilities, and restrooms. The biggest challenge faced by the respondents in the study was noise level in the operations room, which hinders communications and decision making. Most have attempted various strategies with some success to tackle this issue. A combination of allotted space, resources, personal experience, and advice from others strongly influence EOC design and configuration.
Although Emergency Operating Centers (EOCs) are the focal point of disaster response operations, little systematic or empirical information is available to guide their effective design. This paper reviews literature on EOCs, focusing on site location (for both primary EOCs and secondary and ad hoc EOCs), types of rooms, and internal design. Its conclusion: During this time of increasing disasters and potential terrorism, a systematic analysis is needed to determine how to design and configure effective EOCs.
The chapter discusses the importance and benefits of integrating disaster behavioral health into the emergency operations centers (EOC) which are lead and organized by emergency managers. The nature of, and special stresses existing in, EOCs and emergency communications centers are discussed. Options for understanding and mitigating these stressors are explored. First person experiences are described. Establishing and practicing integration within these settings is strongly encouraged.
Planning is a deliberate process that often times calls for the integrated efforts of numerous individuals from a variety of disciplines. From my personal experience, nowhere is this more apparent or critical than with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during a disaster or catastrophe. During an EOC activation the planning function is critical to the success of field operations and overall situational awareness. The planning function is conducted within very stringent timeframes and often with limited information. While creating a plan on time is important, making sure the plan is as accurate as possible is essential.
In a world of e‐commerce and a growing range of governmental services offered on the internet, what is the state of electronic emergency management in the USA? Interest in the use of computers to perform emergency management functions at the state and local level emerged in the 1980s. Today, survey data indicates widespread use of the internet for communications, a moderate level of data automaton support for emergency operations centres, and the use of the internet by all state and some local agencies to communicate with the public. E‐emergency management is being deployed component by component, with components being chosen to meet a variety of operational needs ‐ how to communicate, how to disseminate public information, and how to manage information and resources. Increasingly, the term "virtual emergency operations centre" is used to describe everything from an emergency operations centre with computers, through facilities that offer public information to internet users, to truly virtual facilities that apply incident command system management principles to supply electronic services. However, the evolution of e‐emergency management as a method of performing work extends beyond the emergency operations centre to include professional interchange, electronic exercises, and the development of new concerns in emergency information management.
This article describes strategies used to support a systematic, inductive analysis of interviews with consumers of drug treatment. Data analysis was based on phenomenology and grounded theory. A coding system was developed, with a codebook to explicate the system. The codebook comprised the code address, mnemonic and full name, the code definition and when it should be applied, as well as text examples. A multi-disciplinary coding team was formed, with individuals from research, clinical and service use backgrounds. Challenges in the team approach included the different skill levels brought to the task, resource needs across multiple coders, and time demands on team members. Benefits rested in the inclusion of multiple perspectives in researcher backgrounds and in the opportunities to discuss coding disagreements and refine the coding system. Having two primary coders reduced flexibility in the iterative process of coding analysis, particularly interpretive and pattern coding. The codebook was useful for coding and writing findings. The codebook structure could be applied to other projects and used as a comparison point during analysis.
Many organizations are now employing virtual emergency operations centers (VEOC) concepts as part of their emergency management program. Beyond the internet and the telephone, new development in telecommunications, such as a wireless networks and handheld devices, have opened significant opportunities for overcoming inherent EOC (emergency operations center) participation problems
Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) have become in recent years standard features of disaster activities in most American communities. This brief report examines some of the problems and difficulties associated with their use during time of stress. The observations reported are drawn form an analysis of the data gathered by the Disaster Research Center (DRC) in actual field studies of nearly 100 different disasters since late 1963. Thus, the report covers the functioning of local EOCs in almost all major natural catastrophes and many moderate magnitude in the United States in the last eight years, as well as their use in some related community emergencies (e.g., major explosions, forest fires, dam breaks, etc.) Since our purpose is to arrive at generalizations and to establish common elements, specific disasters and localities and organizations are not identified in the report. It should also be noted that our focus is explicitly on problems and difficulties. This is because we are interested in noting implications for disaster and emergency planning. Such a focus should not obscure the general point, which we shall restate later, that the concept of a local EOC for disaster purposes is a very valid one, and that most function relatively well in most emergencies. Our highlighting of problems and difficulties, however, is an attempt to suggest and imply ways of further improving their efficiency and effectiveness in crisis situations. We should also note that as pre-planned EOCs have become standard features of local American community life in the last few years, some of the following observations were more relevant in the past than now. Likewise, our observations are less applicable to disaster prone communities than to areas with little disaster experiences. However, while these qualifications are necessary in specific instances, nevertheless, what follows is probably a rather accurate picture of the problems and difficulties in the use of local EOCs in natural disasters in American society.
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