Adaptation, Implementation and Evaluation of a Tabletop Exercise

Background/purpose: Assessing preparedness prior to a disaster event is both necessary and challenging. Exercises have been recommended to augment and assess preparedness activities, but there is little information available about tailoring exercises to a specific community. The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the adaptation of a generic disaster scenario for use in 3 different communities.

Methods: In 2007 we assisted three local public health districts in planning and conducting a vulnerable populations and public health emergencies tabletop exercise. We adapted a generic hurricane scenario to reflect jurisdictional needs by identifying current demographic data, key stakeholders, resource inventory and other critical emergency response components. We examined:(1) methods of adapting an exercise to meet the needs of a community; (2) factors affecting implementation success; (3) analysis of feedback from participants and exercise facilitators about successes/failures; and (4) assessments of how and why the process worked and recommendations for process modification.

Results:Analysis revealed the following: (1) participant materials were too complex and required simplification while still achieving the same level of understanding, (2) the time allotted for situation updates during the exercise should be revised, (3) exercise adaptation was critical to obtaining realism, and (4) exercise evaluations were lengthy and difficult to use.

Conclusion: A crucial component of exercise design is adapting the scenario to reflect the hazards and resources of the participating jurisdiction. Improvements to exercise conduct can be achieved by revising the evaluation plan and participant materials.