Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
own plans for how to do so, based on what the incident is. The Public Health facet
of the response cannot ignore the plans of everyone else. The PHO should train
those staff in his/her agency (and volunteers, if necessary) in the entire emergency
operations plan for your jurisdiction. It is important that everyone is working on
the same page at all points during an emergency response to an incident. Success
in this area prevents “turf wars” between agencies and jurisdictions over who is the
right person or agency to carry out a particular part of a response. Another matter
to think about is that the Public Health agency should be involved in, or create,
a Continuity of Operations Plan, in the event of a disaster so significant that pre-
planned communication lines, incident command response, and coordination are
interrupted.
For the most part, the Public Health Official/Agency is not going to be the lead
in Incident Command. Instead, the PHO and his/her staff will be coordinating
various aspects of the response that first responders, law enforcement, and EMS
crews are not going to have the time nor ability to deal with—resources, supplies,
coordinating a volunteer effort, infrastructure, public information, and possibly
mass evacuation. Although Public Health is not going to be the lead, it should be
involved at nearly all levels, and should coordinate with surrounding jurisdictions
and necessary contacts at the local, state, and federal levels to be able to respond
efficiently no matter what type of incident is at hand.
Beyond the preincident training, there are questions that need to be answered
immediately after an incident occurs related to a possible Public Health response.
For example, if an incident occurs for which it is known going in that a Public
Health response is required, is the incident significant enough that some abilities of
the Public Health agency have been cut off? For example, you may need to have a
plan for alternate communications with key staff that will participate in the Public
Health response should electricity and communications (particularly cell phone
communications) be cut of in the wake of an incident. Has the incident caused
outages or damages to Public Health facilities? Will area hospitals become areas
where rescue is needed instead of where victims are taken, such as what occurred in
New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? If Public Health operations
have been affected, what is the backup plan that can be put into action, and does
such a plan require extra staff or volunteers of time and/or resources?
For Public Health staff training, a job aid is provided here that can be used by
incident in the planning process (Figure 6.1). Note that this job aid includes just
general questions to go through by incident—conditions will, of course, vary by the
severity, location, and scope of an incident. But this job aid can help PHOs deter-
mine who should be involved in an incident response, what coordination needs to
take place with outside agencies and jurisdictions, what safety measures need to be
taken, and what other questions need to be asked immediately after an incident
occurs so that the Public Health response can be efficient and effective. It is a start-
ing point to effective planning that should also include instruction, exercises, and
coordination with other likely responders.
