Workforce Activation

Assessment

UNDERSTANDING WORKFORCE ASSESSMENT

Public Health Workforce Activation is an integral part of any public health preparedness strategy . Once the strategy is defined, people must be available and trained to carry it out. Workforce Assessment is the process of reviewing the preparedness strategy, evaluating a variety of event conditions, assessing surge response team staffing needs and assessing the ability of the workforce to meet those needs. The assessment involves a range of strategic, operational and human resource considerations.

Public Health-Seattle & King County's (Public Health) Preparedness section began the assessment process by asking a couple of key questions:

• How will we use our staff during a health-related emergency when there will be competition for precious resources?
• How will we maintain critical public health services and our infrastructure while implementing response activities?

Understanding that it is Public Health's duty to respond as well as ensure the wellbeing of staff and colleagues, Public Health designed a strategy model to illustrate how day to day core public health functions transition into the capacity for surge response.

PREPAREDNESS STRATEGY MODEL

The Preparedness Strategy model is visualized as:

The ten Public Health surge response functions of the model are:

1. Epidemiology and Surveillance / Disease Control
2. EH Hazard Identification / Field Response
3. Mass Vaccination / Dispensing
4. Mass Isolation & Quarantine / Social Distancing
5. Medic One / EMS Surge
6. Mass Fatality / Vital Statistics
7. Laboratory Services
8. Mass Patient Care
9. Risk Communications / Education
10. Emergency Management

Preparedness Strategy Flow Chart PDF

Using these surge response functions we began to develop the following teams:

1. Case/Contact Investigation and Surveillance
2. Rapid Epidemiological Field Assessment
3. EH Field Assessment
4. EH Rapid Response
5. Medication Center (Mass Vaccination/Dispensing)
6. Legal/Law Enforcement (Mass Isolation & Quarantine)
7. Public Information Call Center (Risk Communication/Education)
8. Joint Information Center(Risk Communication/Education)
9. EOC Representatives/Liaisons (Emergency Management)
10. Incident Command Post Field Representatives (Emergency Management)
11. Radio Communications (Emergency Management)