Information sharing for situational understanding and command coordination in emergency management and disaster response

Desourdis, Robert I.; Contestabile, John

doi:10.1109/ths.2011.6107843

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…In terms of the WHO recommendations, it appears that the interoperability of communication equipment and systems was considered unproblematic, but that coordination of actors involved has improvable variables. This is in line with a theoretical suggestion that disaster response interoperability degrades as number of actors increase [21].…”

Section: Main Findingssupporting

confidence: 91%

Mobilisation of emergency services for chemical incidents in Sweden - a multi-agency focus group study

Westman

Saveman

Björnstig

et al. 2021

Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med

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Background In chemical incidents, infrequent but potentially disastrous, the World Health Organization calls for inter-organizational coordination of actors involved. Multi-organizational studies of chemical response capacities are scarce. We aimed to describe chemical incident experiences and perceptions of Swedish fire and rescue services, emergency medical services, police services, and emergency dispatch services personnel. Methods Eight emergency service organizations in two distinct and dissimilar regions in Sweden participated in one organization-specific focus group interview each. The total number of respondents was 25 (7 females and 18 males). A qualitative inductive content analysis was performed. Results Three types of information processing were derived as emerging during acute-phase chemical incident mobilization: Unspecified (a caller communicating with an emergency medical dispatcher), specified (each emergency service obtaining organization-specific expert information), and aligned (continually updated information from the scene condensed and disseminated back to all parties at the scene). Improvable shortcomings were identified, e.g. randomness (unspecified information processing), inter-organizational reticence (specified information processing), and downprioritizing central information transmission while saving lives (aligned information processing). Conclusions The flow of information may be improved by automation, public education, revised dispatcher education, and use of technical resources in the field. Future studies should independently assess these mechanism’s degree of impact on mobilisation of emergency services in chemical incidents.

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Section: Main Findingssupporting

confidence: 91%

Mobilisation of emergency services for chemical incidents in Sweden - a multi-agency focus group study

Westman

Saveman

Björnstig

et al. 2021

Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med

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“…Almost all definitions made explicit reference to “working together”, often in pursuit of a common goal: “a measure of the degree to which diverse systems, organizations, and/or individuals are able to work together to achieve a common goal” (Elmhadhbi et al, 2020, p. 3887). Desourdis and Contestabile (2011) introduced the concept of trust within interoperability: “a measure of shared trusted understanding that drives predictable collaborative action towards a common goal” (pg. 27).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2) was vague. Other authors (e.g., Desourdis & Contestabile, 2011; Kirkham, 2009) included more concrete psychological components such as the importance of team members having a “trusted understanding” and “breaking down silo thinking”. We suggest that, based on findings from this review, interoperability should be more concretely defined as “a shared system of technology and teamwork built upon trust, identification, goals, communication, and flexibility.”…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The psychology of interoperability: A systematic review of joint working between the UK emergency services

Power,

Alcock,

Philpot

et al. 2023

J Occupat & Organ Psyc

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Emergency responding requires effective interoperability, whereby different emergency teams combine efforts and expertise to contain and reduce the impact of an emergency. Within the United Kingdom, the capacity for the Emergency Services to be interoperable has been criticized by public enquiries. This systematic review had three goals to: (i) define interoperability; (ii) identify the structural principles that underpin interoperability and (iii) identify the psychological principles that outline how interoperability can be achieved. A PRISMA framework was used to identify 137 articles, including 94 articles from the systematic review, 15 articles from grey literature and 28 articles based on author expertise. We identified two structural principles of interoperability: (i) being able to communicate and exchange information effectively; and (ii) having a decentralized and flexible team network. We identified three psychological principles that informed how interoperability might be embedded in the team: (i) establishing trust between team members; (ii) developing secure team identities and (iii) building cohesive goals. We defined interoperability as a shared system of technology and teamwork built upon trust, identification, goals, communication and flexibility. Regular psychologically immersive training that targets these psychological principles will help to embed interoperability into the social fabric of multi‐team systems operating in high‐reliability organizations.

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“…This is in line with a theoretical suggestion that disaster response interoperability degrades as number of actors increase. [16] 4.2 Unspeci ed information processing…”

Section: Main Ndingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

"The Alarm Was Grass Fire": Emergency Services' Perceptions of Chemical Incident Mobilization in Sweden - a Focus Group Study

Westman¹,

Saveman²,

Björnstig³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: In chemical incidents, infrequent but potentially disastrous, the World Health Organization calls for inter-organizational coordination of actors involved. Multi-organizational studies of chemical response capacities are scarce and testable hypotheses are largely lacking. We aimed to describe chemical incident experiences and perceptions of Swedish fire and rescue services, emergency medical services, police services, and emergency dispatch services personnel.Methods: Eight emergency service organizations in two distinct and dissimilar regions in Sweden participated in one organization-specific focus group interview each. The total number of respondents was 25 (7 females and 18 males). A qualitative inductive content analysis was performed.Results: Three types of information processing were derived as emerging during acute-phase chemical incident mobilization: Unspecified (a caller communicating with an emergency medical dispatcher), specified (each emergency service obtaining organization-specific expert information), and aligned (continually updated information from the scene condensed and disseminated back to all parties at the scene). Improvable shortcomings were identified, e.g. randomness (unspecified information processing), inter-organizational reticence (specified information processing), and downprioritizing central information transmission while saving lives (aligned information processing).Conclusions: It is inferred that sensitivity, specificity and time-effectiveness in the flow of information may be improved by automation, public education, revised dispatcher education, and use of technical resources in the field. It is further inferred that inter-organizational coordination may be improved by inter-organizational training and revised standard operating procedures. We propose systematic assessments of chemical incident probabilities in Sweden.

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Information sharing for situational understanding and command coordination in emergency management and disaster response

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Mobilisation of emergency services for chemical incidents in Sweden - a multi-agency focus group study

Mobilisation of emergency services for chemical incidents in Sweden - a multi-agency focus group study

The psychology of interoperability: A systematic review of joint working between the UK emergency services

"The Alarm Was Grass Fire": Emergency Services' Perceptions of Chemical Incident Mobilization in Sweden - a Focus Group Study

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