Prepare A Public Health Disaster Management Plan For A Local ✓ Solved

Prepare a public health disaster management plan for a local

jurisdiction. Scenario: You are applying for an internship in the Emergency Preparedness and Response department at your local county health department and must submit a public health disaster management plan for a natural or man-made event in the community. Adapt best practices and lessons learned from a recent event in a similar community; use an all-hazards approach.

Steps:

1. Select a jurisdiction (e.g., city/county) and complete a Hazard and Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) worksheet covering Natural, Technological, Human, and Hazardous Materials hazards.

2. Identify top threats from the HVA and choose one high-ranking hazard to focus on.

3. Write a public health disaster management plan for the chosen jurisdiction and hazard, acknowledging the HVA process and findings.

4. Prepare to present the plan as if to an interview panel for the local health department.

Prepare the plan to address preparedness, probability, internal resources, response, external resources, human impact, property impact, and business impact. Consider items including current plan status, frequency of drills, training status, insurance, alternate sources for critical supplies/services, known risk and historical data, supplies and staffing, backup systems, coordination with local/state agencies and healthcare facilities, time to marshal response, scope of response capability, and costs and recovery time. Research a recent similar event and include review of the event, risk/vulnerability, human and environmental costs, short- and long-term impacts, lessons learned, successes and failures, and subsequent social/environmental changes.

Paper For Above Instructions

Executive Summary

This submission is a public health disaster management plan for San Diego County focused on wildfires, developed after completion of an HVA across Natural, Technological, Human, and Hazmat categories. Wildfire ranked as a top threat based on probability, human impact (smoke-related morbidity), property loss, business interruption, and critical supply vulnerabilities (Reid et al., 2016). The plan adapts lessons from recent California wildfire events and emphasizes prevention, surge capacity, sheltering, risk communication, and recovery.

Hazard and Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) Summary

The HVA examined likelihood, severity, preparedness, internal/external response, human, property, and business impacts for hazards. Wildfire scored high on probability during dry seasons and high severity for smoke exposure, evacuation demands, and infrastructure disruption. Internal resource gaps identified included limited alternate power and spare medical oxygen supplies; external gaps included regional shelter capacities and inter-agency communication protocols (San Diego County HHSA, 2019).

Selected Hazard: Wildfires — Rationale

Wildfires threaten San Diego due to climate, vegetation, and urban-wildland interfaces. Scores from the HVA prioritized wildfires for immediate planning because of recurrent fires in nearby regions, history of rapid spread, and significant health effects from particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure (Rappold et al., 2014; Reid et al., 2016). Probability was rated high seasonally; severity increased when fires coincide with peak healthcare demand.

Preparedness Measures

Key preparedness actions include: updating and exercising county surge plans and evacuation routes; establishing fuel and power contracts for generator continuity; stockpiling N95 respirators and essential medications; training staff in mass evacuation medical triage and shelter medical care; and formalizing mutual aid agreements with regional hospitals and EMS (FEMA, 2018). Drills will occur biannually, with one full-scale exercise simulating peak patient loads and evacuee sheltering. Insurance and financial contingency plans for displaced facilities are documented to reduce business interruption (IOM, 2012).

Response Plan

Activation triggers: large-scale wildfire within county borders or regional air quality index (AQI) in the “hazardous” range for >24 hours. Incident Command System (ICS) with Public Health Liaison will co-locate with County Emergency Operations Center. Actions: coordinate sheltering with social services, deploy mobile medical teams to evacuation centers, enforce indoor air guidance and distribute HEPA filters/N95 masks, and implement risk communication via multilingual channels and social media (CDC, 2019). Time-to-marshal metrics: 4 hours for initial public health team deployment; 24 hours to operationalize alternate care sites if hospitals exceed surge thresholds. External requests for mutual aid follow county protocols with predefined resource request templates (CAL FIRE; FEMA, 2018).

Internal and External Resource Considerations

Internal: inventory of oxygen, ventilators, emergency pharmaceuticals, and staff surge lists; cross-train nonclinical staff for shelter operations. External: pre-established contracts with vendors for fuel, PPE, and portable air cleaners; memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with neighboring counties and regional medical centers for patient redistribution. Communication agreements ensure timely coordination with state public health and fire agencies (NIFC; San Diego County HHSA, 2019).

Human, Property, and Business Impact Mitigation

Human impact mitigation focuses on reducing smoke exposure, ensuring continuity of care for vulnerable populations (COPD, asthma, older adults), and mental health support for evacuees (Reid et al., 2016). Property protection includes protective staging of critical infrastructure where feasible and rapid debris-removal plans. Business continuity plans emphasize supply chain redundancy for pharmacies, oxygen suppliers, and food services, with financial assistance pathways for small businesses affected by closures (NASEM, 2012).

Recovery and Long-Term Actions

Recovery includes restoring routine public health services, case management for displaced families, environmental monitoring of air and soil, and infrastructure rebuild guidance emphasizing resilient construction. Long-term strategies: expand community resilience programs, retrofit shelters with improved HVAC filtration, and integrate wildfire education into community outreach (WHO, 2017). After-action reviews and data-driven revisions to HVA will be completed within 90 days post-incident.

Lessons Incorporated from Recent Events

Review of recent California wildfires highlights the importance of early evacuation notifications, effective risk messaging, and rapid provision of clean-air shelters (Reid et al., 2016; CAL FIRE, 2018). Failures in prior events included communication breakdowns across jurisdictions and insufficient supplies of respirators; successes included rapid volunteer mobilization and effective public-private partnerships for temporary housing. This plan embeds redundancies and communication protocols to address those failures (FEMA, 2018).

Evaluation and Metrics

Key performance indicators: time to open shelters, percentage of vulnerable individuals reached with clean-air interventions, hospital surge occupancy rates, and timeliness of public alerts. Annual HVA updates and quarterly drills will maintain readiness. Continuous improvement will be based on after-action reports and community stakeholder feedback (IOM, 2012).

Conclusion

This wildfire-focused public health disaster management plan for San Diego County is grounded in HVA findings and evidence-based best practices. It emphasizes preparedness, coordinated response, protection of vulnerable populations, robust recovery planning, and incorporation of lessons learned from recent wildfire events to strengthen overall community resilience (CDC, 2019; Reid et al., 2016).

References

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2019). Wildfire Smoke: A Guide for Public Health Officials. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov
  2. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (2018). Wildfire Preparedness and Response. FEMA. https://www.fema.gov
  3. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). (2018). 2018 Incident Archive and Wildfire Response Lessons. https://www.fire.ca.gov
  4. San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA). (2019). Public Health Emergency Response Plan. San Diego County HHSA. https://www.sandiegocounty.gov
  5. Reid, C. E., Brauer, M., Johnston, F. H., Jerrett, M., Balmes, J. R., & Elliott, C. T. (2016). Critical review of health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(9), 1334–1343. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP
  6. Rappold, A. G., Reyes, J., Pouliot, G., Cascio, W. E., & Diaz-Sanchez, D. (2014). Community vulnerability to health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure. Environmental Science & Technology, 48(12), 7223–7231. https://doi.org/10.1021/es501462u
  7. Institute of Medicine (IOM). (2012). Crisis Standards of Care: A Systems Framework for Catastrophic Disaster Response. The National Academies Press. https://www.nap.edu
  8. World Health Organization (WHO). (2017). Protecting health from climate change: National adaptation plans. WHO. https://www.who.int
  9. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). (2018). Wildland Fire Statistics and Interagency Coordination Guidelines. https://www.nifc.gov
  10. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). (2012). Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative. The National Academies Press. https://www.nap.edu

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