When discussing the value of PODs, one should start by addressing how the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile (NPS) appeared in 1999 and paved the way for numerous other ways of preventing the population from not being ready to fight against the different types of pandemics and other threats. According to Public Health Emergency (2020) website, the mission of the NPS was to support communities and reach out to the damaged regions with huge deliveries of essential medical supplies. It became the prototype for PODs, with numerous requirements that had to be followed if the local government wanted to respond to an incident promptly.
Therefore, when placing a POD, the emergency response team should consider the potential number of residents living in the area. The size of the population is what might affect the ability of the local emergency agencies to respond to an incident. According to the current standards, the most common factors that have to be included in the list of top priorities are (1) the probable number of visitors to PODs and (2) the geographical dispersal of these prospective visitors (Paul & Hariharan, 2012). When administering the essential resources, every individual jurisdiction is responsible for its POD positioning and approach to covering the local population.
Another standard that has to be followed by the local emergency response team is the resident-throughput ratio that has to be calculated to establish if one POD may be enough to cover the needs of the local population during an emergency (Khan & Richter, 2012). Under the condition where there is not enough throughput available to a POD, there is going to be no chance the facility would maintain the residents’ well-being properly. One assumption that is also considered by emergency teams is the time threshold that requires the POD to allow up to 12 hours to have the materials delivered from warehouses to required POD spots.
References
Khan, S., & Richter, A. (2012). Dispensing mass prophylaxis? The search for the perfect solution. Homeland Security Affairs, 8(1), 1-20.
Paul, J. A., & Hariharan, G. (2012). Location-allocation planning of stockpiles for effective disaster mitigation. Annals of Operations Research, 196(1), 469-490.
Public Health Emergency. (2020). Stockpile responses. PHE.gov. Web.