The
tabletop disaster exercise was designed to simulate
a real public health emergency. The scenario
was a communicable, easily transmittable and
often life-threatening disease. The fictional
character who was our Index Case, (the 1st known
case), had potentially infected hundreds of
people. The vast number of people exposed, required
that Public Health (PH) set up an incident command
post and enlist the help of all PH staff for
the Communicable Disease (CD) investigation.
A CD field investigation
is a role that is unfamiliar to many of the
PH staff. This particular field investigation
was very extensive and required PH staff to
interview potential contacts of the index case
including: family, friends, co-workers, hospital
and ER staff, Police Department staff, jail
staff and inmates.
This
exercise provided PH staff with a unique learning
experience:
- Preparing
for and responding to an emerging infectious
disease threat
- Conducting
sensitive and effective communicable disease
investigations
- Becoming
familiar with the roles, functions and procedures
of disease investigations
The over-all participation, teamwork and enthusiasm
of the PH staff was evident throughout the exercise.
We are currently in the process of planning
our next tabletop exercise.
These
exercises will help prepare Tehama County in
the event of a true Public Health incident. |
