Critical Decision-making in Medical Command and Control During Early Covid-19: An Interview Study

Abstract

Introduction:A resilient health care system is expected to withstand disruptive events and consistently deliver high quality care by continually adapting, learning, and improving. To achieve these expectations, medical command and control teams are responsible for making relevant strategic decisions, reallocating resources, and initiating cooperation. Early during Covid-19, medical command and control teams were faced with an unforeseen increase in number of patients, as well as unknown disease mechanisms and treatment regimes. Timely and adequate decision-making to become a resilient healthcare system and maintain high quality care was necessary. The aim of the present study was to describe the challenges and strategies in a medical command and control team during the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.Method:A semi-structured retrospective in-depth interview study with phenomenological approach and inductive design was used. Thirteen experienced decision makers serving in a regional medical command and control team were interviewed using the Critical Decision Method. The interviews were analyzed using manifest conventional content analyses.Results:The respondents described twelve separate episodes during the Covid-19 management. The analysis resulted in five themes: organization, adaptation, common operational picture, assumptions, and analysis. Organization described how organizational challenges affected the decision-making process. Adaptation described the strategies to overcome the obstructive organizational factors. Common operational picture described how challenges in lack of available information affected decision-making and strategies used in creating situational awareness. Assumptions offered descriptions of strategies used to make decisions. Analysis emphasized descriptions and strategies affecting the decision-making process.Conclusion:This study enables a better understanding of how medical command and control teams can be organized and structured, while also highlighting challenges in maintaining high-quality care during unexpected events. The findings obtained in the present study provide further knowledge about disaster resilience and can be utilized in educational and training settings for medical command and control.