Responding to a Global Pandemic: Bureaucratic Caring Theory-Guided, Evidence-Based Approach in the Military Health System

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a cascade of events, policy directives, and guidance. The U.S. Military Health System was leading the war, the first time in military history. Fulfilling its military medical readiness and beneficiary health-care delivery missions stimulated innovation. Applying the theory of bureaucratic caring revealed concepts of uncertainty, interconnectedness, choice-making, and emergence as determinants of growth, development, and future state for the Military Health System. New ways of thinking targeting health-care services laid the foundation for a radically different future. This article elucidates application of the theory to the Military Health System response to this global catastrophe.