Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Employee Emergency Readiness Framework: A multi-level staffing framework for allocating competency-based trainings, exercises, and resources to assure employee readiness

Los Angeles (LA) County's nearly 4,000 public health workers must be ready and prepared to respond to the emergency needs of such a large and diverse population as LA County's 10 million residents. Two years ago, LA County Department of Public Health (DPH) underwent an effort to create a Public Health Employee Emergency Readiness (PHEER) Framework, outlining competencies, and associated trainings, exercises, and resources that each employee would need to be ready to respond to an emergency. The PHEER Framework includes 4 specified staffing levels based on the reporting structure within the Incident Command System and the hierarchy of Operations Centers established within LA County DPH. Since its development, the PHEER Framework has established a systematic and concrete approach to preparing employees to respond to emergencies, and has provided a mechanism for assuring that the resources and training programs are in place to achieve employee readiness. Extensive effort has been made to identify employees at each level and develop accountability measures to assure that all elements of the framework are achieved. The latest version of the PHEER Framework will be shared along with the implementation plan, progress made, and next steps to assuring employee readiness in responding to emergencies.