Emergency management in a post-COVID-19 world: A futurological study of hospital preparedness in South-Central Pennsylvania

Focusing events—such as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and the COVID-19 pandemic—have profoundly shaped both individual and societal perceptions of emergencies and disasters. These are “sudden, relatively rare events that can be reasonably defined as harmful or revealing the possibility of future harms, inflicting or suggesting concentrated harms on a definable geographical area or community of interest, and known to policymakers and the public virtually simultaneously” (Rob A. DeLeo, 2021). Such events have significantly influenced the evolution of emergency management as a discipline. This study employs a qualitative Straussian grounded theory approach to examine the central research question: What are the essential elements of an effective and efficient hospital Emergency Management Program that reduces morbidity and mortality within the context of COVID-19? To address this question, the research draws on insights from 30 semi-structured interviews with hospital emergency managers, and other key COVID-19 response stakeholders, in South Central Pennsylvania. Data analysis revealed five major thematic categories: (1) Emergency Management Structures and Strategy; (2) People and Professional Development; (3) Resource Constraints and Infrastructure; (4) Culture, Values, and Ethics; and (5) Innovation and Future Outlook. Together, these themes form the theoretical foundation of the study, which is conveyed through ten key recommendations. This research contributes a novel and substantive perspective to the field of hospital emergency management by illuminating the emergence of a new paradigm for the hospital emergency manager—one characterized by expanded roles, dynamic responsibilities, and an integrated systems approach. This study demonstrates that when emergency managers and hospital leaders employ data-driven improvement processes, such as After Action Reviews (AARs), leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced technologies, and foster broad-based stakeholder collaboration, their Emergency Management Programs achieve enhanced resilience, greater organizational trust, and a sustainable culture of preparedness embedded in routine operations.