Simulating Public Health Capacity to Measure Performance: E. coli O157 at the North Carolina State Fair

Abstract

AbstractDespite the investment of billions of dollars in federal funding for emergency preparedness and response initiatives, broadly accepted performance measures for determining the efficacy of these systems have yet to be established. The inability to accurately capture this information hinders the ability to measure the true degree of preparedness. The North Carolina Public Health Information Network (NC PHIN), a key component of North Carolina's public health system, has promise as a means to measure emergency preparedness and response. In this paper, we look at how NC PHIN has increased emergency preparedness and response capacity by presenting a simulation of the 2004 State Fair Escherichia coli outbreak. We found that although the capacity exists within NC PHIN to increase emergency preparedness and response, some factors limit NC PHIN's effectiveness. Our findings suggest that proper resource allocation will be necessary in order to realize the potential of NC PHIN.