COVID-19 Case Study: Public Private Partnerships in Maryland

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested emergency management response operations. The rapid and irregular pace of the pandemic coupled with limited prior experience for this type of disaster made early response efforts especially challenging. As the months progressed, there was evidence across the country of spontaneous efforts to institute whole community approaches, which has been a FEMA priority over the last decade (FEMA, 2011). In Maryland, state-level emergency management officials leveraged and expanded relationships with the private sector to coordinate information, resources, and operational activities in order to make headway in the COVID-19 response throughout the State. This article presents a case-study of a successful public-private partnership and contains a call to action to reduce future disaster consequences through the integration and leveraging of partnerships between government and the private sector.

Keywords

• private-public partnerships
• emergency management
• private sector
• covid-19
• business emergency operations center