For Public Health Emergencies

Program History and Overview:

Following the September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., and subsequent anthrax attacks through the U.S. Postal Service, Congress and the federal government established funding streams to build capacity at the state and local level to prepare for terrorist attacks. These funding streams are managed through the Federal Department of Homeland Security targeting emergency responders; the Health Resource and Service Administration (HRSA) to focus on improving community hospital capacity; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aimed at building public health capacity to respond to bioterrorist acts or naturally occurring outbreaks of disease.

In Idaho, these funding streams are managed by the State Bureau of Homeland Security (BHS) for emergency responders and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW), Division of Health (DOH) for enhancing preparedness of community health care providers and public health systems. The IDHW created a Public Health Preparedness Program to perform public health and hospital preparedness planning and to administer the cooperative agreements (CDC and HRSA). The DOH contracted with the seven public health districts to increase health preparedness capacity within their jurisdictions. At South Central District Health, the PHP program was established in August 2002. Our primary purpose is to enhance our ability to prepare for and respond to a public health emergency.

Public Health Preparedness Primary Focus Areas:

Emergency Response Planning: Framework to guide efforts to respond to a public health emergency. South Central District Health has written a public health response plan to guide response roles and activities.

Plans: One plan, ten supporting annexes.
    All Hazards Base Plan
       Annex A - Emergency Support Functions
       Annex B - Public Health Emergency Risk Communications
       Annex C - Tactical Communications Systems
       Annex D - Laboratory Integrated Response
       Annex E - Epidemiology & Surveillance Response
       Annex F - Point of Dispensing Operations
       Annex G - Strategic National Stockpile
       Annex H - Regional Health Care System Surge Capacity
       Annex I - Isolation and Quarantine
       Annex J - Training, Exercises, and Evaluation

Education and Training: The Public Health Preparedness program coordinates staff education and training opportunities to improve coordination and cooperation between public and private entities in the event of an emergency requiring a collaborative response. To enhance learning opportunities, efforts are made to coordinate education and training sessions with partner entities. Education and training examples include: joint planning efforts (sharing of plans with other first responder entities); regional disaster exercise drills; media spokesperson training; and distance learning opportunities such as I-Link, CDC webcasts, and ISU-Institute of Emergency Response. Recent internal staff training includes Columbia University's Emergency Preparedness Core Competencies course for all public health workers, Incident Command (basic and intermediate), and National Incident Management System (or NIMS) training.

Drills and Exercise: To ensure that the staff know their emergency response role and how to perform its function, they participate in table top exercises, functional exercises, and state-wide full scale exercises in conjunction with state and local agencies.

Public Health Response Team Members

Pandemic Influenza

State of Idaho Resources

National Resources

Idaho Guide for Health Data Suggestive of Terrorism

Emergency Response Fact Sheets