Emergency Preparedness, Response & Recovery Checklist Beyond the Emergency Management Plan - Preparing Hospitals for Bioterror - page 298

particularly in the event that it becomes necessary
for the public health authority to assume control of
a hospital.
True community-wide emergency preparedness
therefore hinges on close coordination and coop-
eration between public health agencies, health-
care organizations, and their respective legal
counsel. Protecting communities from man-made
and naturally occurring threats alike requires legal
counsel—for both public health agencies and
healthcare providers—to establish a clear under-
standing of legal roles and operational responsibil-
ities of each party, well in advance of any public
health emergency. Thi s is important particularly to
minimize the loss of lives and reduce the potential
economic consequences of these events. To further
this goal, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention's (CDC's) Public Health Law
Program has developed the Community Public
Health Legal Preparedness Initiative (Initiative). 11
Through intensive, community-based, one-day
workshops, this Initiative aims to build vibrant
and enduring partnerships between legal counsel
for private and public hospitals, as well as with
other healthcare organizations and public health
agencies, to enhance the use of law as a tool
to advance community health through prevention
and health promotion. Resources to facilitate this
public health/healthcare partnership are listed in
Appendices D and E of this Checklist .
This Checklist is organized to reflect the hier-
archy established by the ICS structure, which
provides a scalable approach to emergency
management. The ICS structure offers a model for
the immediate (and hopefully short-term) ad hoc
restructuring of an organization around functional
(rather than administrative) lines to better meet the

demands of a given emergency situation. ICS iden-
tifies key roles within an organization, addresses
responsibilities for each role, and assigns individ-
uals and resources to those roles based on their
availability as needed during an emergency. The
ICS structure is scalable, enabling its use in the full
range of emergency situations that may disrupt a
healthcare provider's operations. The ICS employs
an “Incident Commander” with four “sections” that
report to the commander: (i) Operations; (ii) Plan-
ning; (iii) Logistics; and (iv) Finance, each with its
own “chief.” 12

II. Incident Command (Orange)
The Incident Commander has overall authority and
responsibility for operations during an emergency
event. 13 The Incident Commander's main job is to
allocate resources and ensure safety. Any function
not otherwise assigned also is the responsibility
of the Incident Commander. In addition to the
four identified Incident Command System roles,
the Incident Commander has direct reports from
the Liaison Officer, Public Information Officer
(PIO), Communications Officer, Safety/Security
Officer, 14 and Recorder/Transcriber.

A. Emergency Management Plan
It is critical for the organization's personnel and
medical staff to be familiar with its emergency
management plan and ICS. In particular, personnel
and medical staff should be aware of the following:

1. What constitutes a disaster that could trigger
the implementation of the organization's emer-
gency management plan and how is a disaster
declared by the facility?

11 See Firescope California, Glossary of Terms (ICS 010-1) 11 (1999), available at www.firescope.org/ics-pos-
manuals/ICS%20010-1.pdf (last visited Sept. 15, 2004) [hereinafter Glossary of Terms]. For more information about the Community
Public Health Legal Preparedness Initiative and the Workshop Director's Guide, please visit www.phppo.cdc.gov/phlp or contact the
CDC Public Health Law Program (Telephone: [phone], Fax: [phone]; e-mail [e-mail]).
12 By custom in the healthcare environment, each of these five key roles (i.e., the Incident Commander and her/his four Chiefs) has
an assigned color, as indicated below. See North Carolina Hosp. Ass'n, supra note 4, for an organizational chart showing these
four divisions.
13

Firescope California, Field Operations Guide (ICS 420-1) 5-2 (2004), available at www.firescope.org/ics-big-fog/ICS420-
1FOG8x11Cmplt.pdf (last visited Sept. 15, 2004) [hereinafter Field Operations Guide].
14 See North Carolina Hosp. Ass'n, supra note 4.