In order for a community to be truly prepared to respond to any type of emergency, it must develop effective emergency planning. Emergency Planning guides readers through the steps of developing these plans, offering a number of strategies that will help ensure success. It delves into the patterns of human disaster behavior, social psychology, and communication as well as the basics of generic protective actions, planning concepts, implementation, and action.

Recent research underscores a serious lack of preparedness among hospitals nationwide and a dearth of credible educational programs and resources on hospital emergency preparedness. As the only resource of its kind, Health Care Emergency Management: Principles and Practice specifically addresses hospital and health system preparedness in the face of a large scale disaster or other emergency. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.

When communities face complex public health emergencies, state local, tribal, and territorial public health agencies must make difficult decisions regarding how to effectively respond. The public health emergency preparedness and response (PHEPR) system, with its multifaceted mission to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, is inherently complex and encompasses policies, organizations, and programs. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the United States has invested billions of dollars and immeasurable amounts of human capital to develop and enhance public health emergency preparedness and infrastructure to respond to a wide range of public health threats, including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear events. Despite the investments in research and the growing body of empirical literature on a range of preparedness and response capabilities and functions, there has been no national-level, comprehensive review and grading of evidence for public health emergency preparedness and response practices comparable to those utilized in medicine and other public health fields. Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response reviews the state of the evidence on PHEPR practices and the improvements necessary to move the field forward and to strengthen the PHEPR system. This publication evaluates PHEPR evidence to understand the balance of benefits and harms of PHEPR practices, with a focus on four main areas of PHEPR: engagement with and training of community-based partners to improve the outcomes of at-risk populations after public health emergencies; activation of a public health emergency operations center; communication of public health alerts and guidance to technical audiences during a public health emergency; and implementation of quarantine to reduce the spread of contagious illness.

Intensely practical and down to earth, this timely new text covers the breadth of health emergency preparedness, resilience and response topics in the context of inter-disciplinary and whole society responses to a range of threats. It includes public, private and third sector roles in preparation for and in response to natural and man-made events, such as: major incident planning; infectious disease epidemics and pandemics; natural disasters; terrorist threats; and business and service continuity management. The book builds upon the basics of risk assessment and writing an emergency plan, and then covers inter-agency working, command and control, communication, personal impact and business continuity as well as training, exercises and post-incident follow up. Detailing the full emergency preparedness and civil protection planning cycle, the book is illustrated throughout with real-life examples and case studies from global experts in the field for countries with both advanced and developing healthcare systems. This practical handbook covering the essential aspects of major incident and disaster management is ideal for undergraduate and master's students in emergency management and public health, as well as for practitioners in emergency preparedness and civil protection. It will be valuable to all health practitioners from ambulance, hospital, primary and community care, mental health and public health backgrounds.

This handbook contains a number of papers which set out practical information and best practice guidance for staff involved in all aspects of health emergency planning. Topics covered include: an introduction to major incidents and disasters; a review of the legal framework; crisis management and organisational learning issues; hazard identification and risk management; emergency plans, including the types of plans, their structures and the planning process; plan evaluation and audit; planning exercises and training; multi-agency responses; roles and responsibilities of the Department of Health, the Health Protection Agency and the NHS, as well as relations between local and national healthcare bodies; chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents, including decontamination, sheltering and evacuation issues; public relations and media management; organisational debriefing and reporting following major incidents. This publication provides a supporting resource to the publication 'The NHS Emergency Planning Guidance' (Department of Health, 2005).

The public health community plays a vital role in identifying, responding to, containing, and recovering from emergencies. Essentials of Public Health Preparedness will introduce your students to the important and timely field of public health preparedness. The book presupposes no previous exposure to the concepts, yet provides enough depth for students who may have advanced knowledge. The chapters are structured in five parts: Background of the Field; Defining the Problem; Infrastructure; Solving Problems; and Practical Applications.

Health Sciences & Professions

Meant to aid State & local emergency managers in their efforts to develop & maintain a viable all-hazard emergency operations plan. This guide clarifies the preparedness, response, & short-term recovery planning elements that warrant inclusion in emergency operations plans. It offers the best judgment & recommendations on how to deal with the entire planning process -- from forming a planning team to writing the plan. Specific topics of discussion include: preliminary considerations, the planning process, emergency operations plan format, basic plan content, functional annex content, hazard-unique planning, & linking Federal & State operations.

Integrating Emergency Management and Disaster Behavioral Health identifies the most critical areas of integration between the profession of emergency management and the specialty of disaster behavioral health, providing perspectives from both of these critical areas, and also including very practical advice and examples on how to address key topics. Each chapter features primary text written by a subject matter expert from a related field that is accompanied by a comment by another profession that is then illustrated with a case study of, or a suggested method for, collaboration. - Addresses the current state of the collaboration between the emergency management and disaster behavioral health communities as presented from pioneers in their respective fields - Focuses on practical examples of what works and what doesn't - Stresses both legal and ethical considerations and the public-private partnerships that are important for leadership in disaster situations - Covers Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) and risk communication

Although many books have been published on the application of GIS in emergency management and disaster response, this is the first one to bring together a comprehensive discussion of the critical role GIS plays in hospital and healthcare emergency management and disaster response. Illustrating a wide range of practical applications, GIS in Hospital