Natural disasters disrupt the way of life, calling for an efficient recovery planning process. Strategic planning involves providing opportunities for integrating health considerations into the disaster recovery process (Fallon et al., 2013). It is crucial because it minimizes the after-effects of a disaster. Although strategic planning is significant, it may be difficult for some communities to prioritize it due to limited finances, human resources, and time. This aspect calls for the formulation of effective strategies using the MAPP framework. This paper identifies, develops, and discusses strategic issues in prioritizing issues facing the community affected by Australian bushfires from a healthcare administrator’s perspective. The discussion also highlights initiatives of minimizing organizational risk, ways of promoting collaborations among clinicians, and methods of enhancing physician leadership.
Communities affected by disasters, such as the Australian bushfires, experience strategic issues when developing strategic models to deal with the stated disaster using the MAPP process. Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) seeks to enhance community health through partnerships by promoting the efficiency, performance, and effectiveness of public health systems. The first step in conducting a MAPP assessment is organizing to engage members and build commitment. In the case of Australian bushfires, the community identifies committee members from various public health bodies to support the partnership. The second step is visioning, which uses common community values and vision to guide members through a collaborative process. This step ensures that the community affected by the wildfires collaborates towards shared objectives. The community values to be emphasized include community spirit and shared emotional connection. The third step is the four MAPP assessments that provide information regarding strategic health problems to be addressed. The four are change assessment forces, community health status assessment, community strengths and themes, and local public health system assessment.
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First, community health status assessment involves identifying priorities in community health and factors affecting the quality of life. For instance, this assessment will evaluate air quality in areas affected by the Australian bushfires. Wildfires produce harmful smoke, which is a health risk because it affects the respiratory system and causes premature death (UNEP, 2020) . This assessment will focus on healthy behaviors, locals’ perceptions of health, and the causes of death.
Second, local public health system assessment involves all organizations and bodies that contribute to public health. It assesses the components, capabilities, activities, and competencies of the local public health system. It also evaluates the provision of essential services to the community. This assessment classifies all groups that contribute to the community's well-being to be part of the public health system. Moreover, MAPP includes all these entities in the assessment process. This evaluation allows all participants to share their diverse viewpoints. This move enables them to understand each group's contribution, link different activities, and brainstorm factors that strengthen the public health system. Community outreach programs will be necessary for providing essential services to the community affected by bushfires.
Third, the change assessment forces classify the trends, activities, and forces that affect the community and public health system operations (NACCHO, 2021) . It evaluates events that affect the public health system and the health of the community. It also investigates the threats and opportunities generated by the events.
Fourth, community themes and strengths examine the most critical aspects to the community, the perception of the quality of life among locals, and the assets available that can enhance community health. Various programs, such as community-sponsored activities, community-based advertisements, and town hall meetings, promote community health.
The fourth step is identifying strategic issues by exploring the four MAPP assessment results and examining the effects of these issues on the shared vision. The fifth step is the formulation of goals and strategies. Members scrutinize strategies issues under the fourth step to develop goal statements. The final step is the action cycle that relates three functions, including planning, implementation, and appraisal.
Disasters, such as wildfires, create inequalities in the healthcare system. Effective partnerships are vital for eliminating these inequalities and enhancing social sustainability. In this case, various initiatives promote collaborations among clinicians. These include engaging the clinicians in interactive processes, implementing collaborative healthcare alternatives, sharing information and resources among the clinical professionals, and involving all members in the decision-making process (Maghsoudi et al., 2020). The collaboration will ensure that members work towards mutual goals, enhancing community health.
Various methods support physician guidance in the improvement of patient care. These include organizational culture, department and town hall meetings, encouraging physician input, physician education and training, redesigning patient care, and recognizing physicians for their exceptional services.
Safety and quality are paramount in a healthcare system. Examples of common patient safety situations include medication errors, healthcare-associated infections, unsafe injections and surgical procedures, diagnostic errors, radiation errors, and sepsis (WHO, 2019) . Community initiatives should focus on initiatives that promote quality and improve the safety of health services. These include responding to patients’ and community’s concerns regarding service delivery, supporting measures to improve safety, implementing a safety culture.
The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) tool can help the community achieve positive healthcare transformations by developing functional relationships between changes and outcomes. Six Sigma tool improves, designs, and monitors a quality improvement process to eliminate wastage and maximize satisfaction (Hughes, 2008) . The community can also use the Lean Production System method to increase patient care effectiveness while minimizing operational costs in various departments.
MAPP framework will help the affected community develop partnerships crucial for the improvement of quality of life. The framework also helps communities identify available opportunities to implement initiatives that enhance community health. Using the methods for quality improvement and MAPP process above will help the community achieve its projected results.
References
Fallon, L., Begun, J., & Riley, W. (2013). Managing Health Organizations for Quality and Performance. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Hughes, R. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. National Ccnter for Biotechnology Information.
Maghsoudi, T., Pereira, R., & Lara, A. (2020). The Role of Collaborative Healthcare in ImprovingSocial Sustainability: A Conceptual Framework. Sustainability . https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083195
NACCHO. (2021). Phase 3: Collecting and Analyzing Data . Retrieved from National Association of County and City Health Officials: https://www.naccho.org/programs/public-health-infrastructure/performance-improvement/community-health-assessment/mapp/phase-3-the-four-assessments
UNEP. (2020). Ten impacts of the Australian bushfires. United Nations Environmental Programme.
WHO. (2019). Patient Safety. World Health Organization.
