To Fight the Flu, Change How Government Works - New York Times

[Owen Densmore]

Interesting to see that some republicans are attempting to address  
change in the bureaucracy, and are critical of the Katrina response.
   http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/opinion/06gingrich.html?
pagewanted=print

The entrepreneurial approach seems weak but there are some  
exceptions.  We'd still be using tubes if the government was in  
charge of computing.

Now if they really did try to improve things, I'd propose looking at  
a more local-knowledge, distributed solution.  That'll be the day!

     -- Owen

Owen Densmore
http://backspaces.net - http://redfish.com - http://friam.org


Here's the text in case you have NYTimes problems.  It isn't  
TimesSelect, but ...


November 6, 2005
Op-Ed Contributors
To Fight the Flu, Change How Government Works

By NEWT GINGRICH and ROBERT EGGE
Washington

LAST week, President Bush released plans to prepare the nation for  
the possibility of an outbreak of deadly influenza, calling for  
Congress to appropriate $7.1 billion for research and the stockpiling  
of vaccines and antiviral drugs. As a summary of goals and  
strategies, the president's plans are commendable. But drafting them  
was the easy part. Putting them into effect will be the challenge.

The problem with President Bush's plans is that they can't succeed in  
the current bureaucratic structure. Were the federal government ever  
entitled to the benefit of the doubt, it forfeited that presumption  
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Unless these shortcomings are  
fixed, we have no grounds to presume the administration's laudable  
avian flu strategies will be translated into action.

What we need to do to prepare for and respond to a pandemic is change  
the very way the government delivers services. And to do that, the  
following initiatives must be integrated into the government's response:

Designate a single, accountable leader. An avian flu pandemic is  
among the greatest threats to our country today. Given our  
vulnerability and the amount of work to be done, the president must  
appoint a leader who is singularly focused on avian flu. This leader  
must be fully accountable for the government's progress. And the  
president must make it clear that this leader speaks on his behalf.

Fragmented authority will cripple the administration's efforts. In  
the president's plan, responsibilities are spread out among a number  
of United States departmental and agency heads. This is a recipe for  
disaster that could result in confusion, finger-pointing and neglect.  
If after the failure of Hurricane Katrina the administration hasn't  
understood the need for a single, dedicated leader, it hasn't yet  
faced up to the scale of disaster that a flu pandemic presents.

Replace bureaucratic administration with entrepreneurial management.  
If an avian flu pandemic sweeps the United States, it will pose a  
tremendous challenge in terms of speed, lethality and complexity.  
Federal, state and local governments will need to act with the speed  
and agility of the information age.

Unfortunately, our government cannot operate at anything approaching  
this level. Despite modest civil service reforms over the years, the  
government remains caught up in a bureaucratic process-oriented  
approach to business. The government's pandemic preparations must be  
equipped with 21st century entrepreneurial management practices that  
mirror those of America's best-run corporations. The government will  
need to stop focusing on process and concentrate instead on results.

To do this, it will need a management system that allows for  
collaboration between the government and communities similar to the  
Compstat crime system used by the New York and Los Angeles Police  
Departments. Compstat links headquarters to each precinct, allowing  
for accurate intelligence, rapid deployment and relentless follow-up.

Prepare for the days of a phony war mentality. Until we receive word  
that a pandemic is loose in this country, last week's announcement  
could well be the high point of public attention to the threat posed  
by avian flu. The pressure to prepare will decline. And as this  
happens, government attention will be pulled in other directions.

Resisting this temptation will require strong leadership from the  
administration and from Congress. But it will also be aided by  
concentrating on efforts that have multiple uses in peacetime as well  
as during a pandemic. These dual-use investments will be easier to  
justify if they are presented as an essential step in preparing for a  
deadly flu outbreak.

A leading example of such an investment is an electronic health  
record system, which would allow the federal government to track the  
course and impact of a pandemic in real time. Public health experts  
widely agree that this kind of network would not only allow for safer  
and more efficient care under normal circumstances, but would also  
equip federal, state and local governments with the data needed to  
direct scarce therapies, medical teams and supplies to where they are  
most needed as a pandemic unfolds. There's no good reason why every  
American couldn't have a preliminary electronic health record by the  
end of 2006.

While we can be grateful that President Bush has acknowledged the  
seriousness of a possible deadly flu outbreak and outlined strategies  
to prepare the nation to respond, much more needs to be done.  
Focusing on these three initiatives will ensure that we are prepared.  
The success of the president's plans hinges on getting this right.

Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the United States House of  
Representatives, is the founder of the Center for Health  
Transformation. Robert Egge is a project director at the center.