이수경·이윤수·조성일 (2018). 지방자치단체 감염병 담당자들의 메르스 위기대응 인식과 경험 탐색. <보건교육건강증진학회지>, 35(3), 79-98.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to gain a qualitative insight into provincial, metropolitan and local infectious disease emergency responders’ (IDERs’) response experiences in the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea. Methods: The focus group interview (FGI) method was employed to collect qualitative data from 4 different focus groups of 25 representative registered IDERs over the period from Dec. 2016 to Jan. 2017. The stratified sampling method was used to select them among different ages, genders, job positions, job series and job groups of 259 IDERs. All interviews were recorded and transcribed in verbatim, and analyzed according to the qualitative thematic analysis method using NViVO software. Results: The process of being reluctant to be positioned as an IDER or at an IDER-related unit or team was based in four subcategories. The overriding theme was experiencing differences between the regulatory system called 'rotation job', which is a characteristic of civil servants' organizations that have difficulty in maintaining professionalism and persistence of work, and the actual reality of the 'new respiratory infectious disease' crisis spread. In the case of massive cases caused by the spread of infectious diseases, the imbalance of powers and responsibilities of local government infectious disease officials, fear of infectious diseases and fear framing are problems. Conclusions: The insights of the study indicate the need to identify the following priorities for gradual, practicable policy reforms that would require the involvement of the central government. The regulatory limitations of current system with a shortage of human and material resources pushed the participants to experience discrepancies between the required regulation and the reality. Additional research could contribute more exemplars to support changes.

Keywords: MERS, local government crisis response, public health care system