Coordination

Although many healthcare organizations have developed emergency plans, it is likely that gaps in coordination exist in many jurisdictions. Some identified gaps include:

• The healthcare market is made up of private and public organizations that are often not coordinating across organizational and service boundaries.
• Individual planning is necessary but not sufficient for robust community-wide healthcare emergency response
• Due to the fact the healthcare system runs on a just in time model the development of surge plans to handle increased demand from the public becomes a huge challenge
• There may be no existing forum for public officials and healthcare leaders to discuss policy issues
• In an emergency, there may be no operational mechanism in place to coordinate response activities across healthcare organizations
• The link between the overall healthcare system and the emergency incident command structure may not exist or be strong enough
• Emergency preparedness planning may have focused primarily on hospitals and not been inclusive of other healthcare service organizations

Addressing these gaps through the development of a Healthcare Coalition, Public Health can help support the integration of national planning best practices with local preparedness efforts. Establishing a Healthcare Coalition will help communities:

• Support more effective communications and coordination
• Engage a broad array of health care organizations in emergency preparedness efforts
• Lead community-wide planning and response
• Establish effective public-private partnerships across jurisdictions
• Clearly define authorities & accountabilities, roles & responsibilities
• Effectively respond to a major health emergency