Walking The Walk - Using ICS in Everyday Public Health Response

The use of the Incident Command Structure (ICS) as part of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) for “all hazard” incident management has been used for a variety of emergency response activities. While public health has increasingly made strides in the utilization of ICS in emergency response activities, practical use has remained limited for a variety of reasons. In this presentation, presenters from Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services (HCPHES) will describe their department's routine use of ICS and the readiness/response capabilities that it has afforded them. The “scalability” and “flexibility” of the ICS structure will be emphasized with practical examples including public health responses to: environmental incidents; infectious disease investigations such as tuberculosis investigations, a large Hepatitis A response, and a human death from rabies; large-scale multidisciplinary responses related to Hurricane Katrina and most recently Hurricane Ike. Illustrated by these incidents, HCPHES will utilize this session to show how ICS can be implemented and provides a sound structure to help organize necessary activities for routine incidents as well as large-scale emergencies. The session will also describe other important departmental changes at HCPHES which were implemented to support the use of ICS and allow for the transformation of the department into a 24/7 public health response agency. Finally, presenters will share their observations for improving future preparedness efforts and how their experiences may help inform planning for a number of other emergency responses.