A proposed organizational structure for managing covid-19 at the local, state, national and international levels.

1. Managing Covid-19
Organizational Patterns and Strategy
Overview 2
Structure 4
Benefits 4
Caveats and Conclusions 5
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2. Overview
This document illustrates a proposed strategy for handling the outbreaks of Covid-19. It models
the problem by looking at responses to the disease and breaking them up into distinct systems /
organizations. Each system / organization has its own responsibilities in combating the disease
and each one communicates with all the other organizations to effectuate a national, regional
and local response to the covid-19 pandemic. The individual systems organizations as well as
the locus of the covid-19 are categorized are as follows:
● ​Hot Spots​: Covid 19 outbreaks are modelled as Hot Spots. Each outbreak has a
Severity - High, Medium, Low.
● Medical Response Unit:​ A Hotspot requires a Medical Response Unit (MRU) to
manage the Covid-19 outbreak. In the diagram below every Hotspot is an MRU, Details
of the composition and function of this group follows the high-level strategy map
provided below.
● Regional Command​: The organization that communicates with the MRUs and with local
and State officials, Drug Manufacturers, Police, etc to support the MRUs. Regional
command also interacts with Central Command to facilitate Federal responses to critical
situations and demands at a National level. Details of the composition and function of
this group follows the high-level strategy map below.
● Central Command​: The organization that works with Regional Command, the Federal
Government and with International Agencies to coordinate actions at a national and
international level. Details of the composition and function of this group follows the
high-level strategy map below.
Note: This plan is a blueprint and focuses solely on an organizational strategy. This strategy is
both distributed and hierarchical, as will be explained. ​It is not an implementation plan ​and
does not address staffing, procurement, safety protocols, inter-agency coordination, etc. It is
expected that these protocols are best left to those with the necessary expertise and resources,
to put in place.
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3. Page 3

4. Structure
In the above diagram, the High Level Covid-19 Strategy can be viewed as a Tree with central
roots (CCs) branching out to regional centers which again branch out to MRUs which are on the
front lines managing each outbreak. But it can also be viewed as a three tiered hierarchy with
each Tier interacting with the others as well as fulfilling its responsibilities in managing the
covid-19 pandemic. These three Tiers are:
Medical Response Units​: An operational entity composed of
● Medical Personnel: Doctors, nurses and all essential hospital staff required to manage
the outbreak of covid-19.
● All necessary medical equipment essential to the safety and well-being of Medical
Personnel.
● Construction Personnel: This includes, but is not limited to, all personnel that can build or
repurpose Tents, Containers, Mobile Homes, Conference Centers, Sports Arenas,
Parking Lots, etc. and transform them into Mobile Care Units.
● IT Personnel: This includes all personnel who can develop, extend and maintain a
network for communication between MRUs, Regional Command and Central Command.
This network of communication is essentially a Mesh Network allowing all entities
responsible for handling the covid-19 outbreaks to communicate with each other.
Regional Command​: An operation entity composed of:
● Medical Personnel: Senior Doctors and Hospital Administrators who can advise and
coordinate MRUs requirements, supplies and personnel.
● Government Liaison: Individuals who can interact with State and Local Government to
facilitate the manufacture and flow of supplies and personnel to all affected areas.
Included in this grouping are individuals who can communicate with their counterparts in
Central Command with status updates, requests for equipment, drugs and other
supplies.
​Central Command​: an operational unit composed of:
● Medical Personnel: Top level medical professionals including the surgeon general,
members from the AMA, WHO and international experts in Epidemiology.
● Government Liaison: Individuals who can interact with Government Agencies and
Private Companies to facilitate the manufacture of all items critically important for
managing covid-19 outbreaks;l
● IT personnel:This includes all personnel who can develop, extend and maintain a
network for communication between MRUs, Regional Command and International
bodies working on the covid-19 pandemic. This network of communication is essentially
a Mesh Network with multinational outreach in order to coordinate and implement the
latest findings in covid-19 research.
Benefits
This strategic approach has the following benefits:
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5. ● Management of the covid-19 pandemic at the front lines of the outbreak.
● Communication and coordination between MRUs and regional / state and local officials.
● Coordination with the Federal and International Organizations.
● Manufacturing: coordination between Drug Manufacturers, Hospital Supply
Manufacturers and other Private and Public companies to set up manufacturing
resources to supply all necessary pharmaceuticals as well as medical and other
equipment, to all organizations combating covid-19.
● Supply Chain optimization - by having organizations at various levels managing the flow
of resources, equipment, staff, information, etc an optimized Supply Chain for these
goods and services can be put in place. This promotes rapid response to critical
situations as well as the continuous flow of resources to all personnel engaged in
combating covid-19.
● Employment - at a time when folks are being asked to stay at home from their jobs, the
effort to build and maintain the organizations in this plan will provide much needed
employment in an economy shocked into recession. ​It is understood that all safety
protocols will be in place for all personnel in any organization working to combat
covid-19.
Caveats and Conclusions
This approach is by nature suggestive and addresses the problem of dealing with covid-19 at a
high-level. But it is extensible - meaning that its broad outlines can be filled in with details as
necessary. It is also expected that deeper dives into each operational entity will reveal further
organizational details requiring design and implementation. However the building, staffing and
runtime protocols of these organizations are deliberately left open. And this is done so that
subject matter experts (SMEs) can fill in the operational details for each of these organizational
entities and provide guidance on their runtime protocols.
The organizational structure laid out in this document is both hierarchical and meshed. It is
expected that there must be coordination and a chain of command. But it is also understood that
solutions, requirements and insights can come from anywhere. And so it proposes a meshed
communication network that allows any and all organizations to communicate with each other.
This allows for a direct response to health and operational challenges while preserving a chain
of command. In this way international, national and state and local agencies can work together
to mitigate and manage the covid-19 pandemic.
Author: John Brinnand
Date: March 20, 2020
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