In the event of a public health emergency in the United States, it is important that public
authorities are equipped to distribute medical supplies to every person in need as quickly as
possible. Federal guidelines state that all persons in an area affected by a public health
emergency should receive their medical countermeasures within 48 hours of the emergency’s
declaration. While the CDC has determined a general dispensing plan for each state and county
to follow, it is ultimately up to the state and county to formalize and implement detailed plans.
A body of academic literature focuses on optimizing the placement and operation of Points of
Dispensing (PODs), which are mass dispensing locations the public visits to receive
countermeasures. However, very few papers have considered the logistics associated with
moving countermeasures from state receiving areas to county-level PODs. This research
addresses this gap through service network design and transportation modeling. Specifically,
the feasibility of a multi-tiered distribution model is evaluated for a case study region
representative of a US state comprised of a mix of urban and rural areas
