Efficiency of critical incident management systems: Instrument development and validation

There is much literature in the area of emergency response management systems. Even so, there is in general a lacuna of literature that deals with the issue of measuring the effectiveness of such systems. The aim of this study is to develop and validate an instrument to measure the critical factors that contribute to the efficiency of decision support in critical incident management systems (CIMS). The instrument presented in this paper has been developed using a CIMS efficiency model that is based on an adaptation of media richness theory, aspects of the national incident management system (NIMS) and interviews with experts on emergency management. The instrument has been validated through a pretest, followed by a pilot test and, finally, a main field test which includes a survey of 76 experts. The final instrument consists of 28 statistically relevant question items, which form eight constructs. The instrument allows communities to assess both strengths and weaknesses of existing systems. This allows communities to better prepare for disasters as it informs both policies and practice on areas of weakness that need addressing. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.