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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Paul A. Biedrzycki, MPH, MBA¹, Mat Wolters, MS¹, Daniel Alexander, MS², Mark Owen, BS³, and Gloria Murawsky, BS³. (1) Health Department, City of Milwaukee, 841 N. Broadway, 3rd Floor, Milwaukee, WI 53202, 414-286-5787, pbiedr@milwaukee.gov, (2) Department of Administration, City of Milwaukee, 200 E. Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202, (3) Milwaukee Fire Department, City of Milwaukee, 711 W. Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202

Traditional emergency management models with few exceptions have exclusively relied on focused planning across public sector agencies at the local level. These typically include emergency management, law enforcement, fire department, EMS, and most recently public health. Five years after 9-11, most communities are beginning to recognize the need for a fundamentally more diverse group of stakeholders to spearhead comprehensive community-wide emergency planning. This has become especially apparent for events of long duration and significant economic upheaval.

The City of Milwaukee, in coordination with the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) programs has more recently engaged private sector businesses as true “partners” in emergency planning. Examples include; creation of a local Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) workgroup; integration of a large local employer in WMD exercises; initiation of a pandemic influenza “summit” for local businesses; and, active participation in a joint public-private emergency planning task force encompassing the Southeast region of the State.

Private sector businesses possess the requisite expertise, resources, and personnel essential to the success and robustness of the overall response dynamic. The benefits of pursuing private sector partnerships are not limited to mitigation of human health risk and property loss. Indirectly, this relationship also assures business continuity of operations, cost-effectiveness of government response, promotion of community collaboration and infusion of a new perspective into emergency preparedness strategies. Through these activities, the City of Milwaukee has begun a shift toward a new planning paradigm that transitions business sector participation from “observer” to “unified command participant”.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Describe some of the mutual benefits of including private sector business in comprehensive community emergency planning.
• Identify ways in which local government first responder agencies can engage private sector businesses in emergency planning and preparedness activities.
• Define roles for private sector business participation in emergency preparedness activities within a community.
• Describe examples in which the City of Milwaukee has collaborated with private sector business to improve overall community-wide preparedness as well as response capabilities.

Keywords: Bioterrorism, Emergency

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation