Overview of the Florida Department of Health's Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan

Introduction

The Florida Department of Health is a state cabinet-level agency responsible for protecting the safety and health of the people of Florida. The department is headed by a surgeon general, and its headquarters are in Tallahassee. The health department is organized into several programs and services such as children's health, women's health, community health, emergency preparedness, and response and public health campaigns. The emergency preparedness and response division is responsible for enhancing and coordinating the capacity of the health department's care systems, as well as, communities and individual's ability to respond to emergencies (Florida Department of Health, 2018). More specifically, the division is responsible for mobilizing resources to enable individuals and communities to quickly respond to, protect against, prevent and recover from unpredictable events.

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In line with the guidelines and regulations implemented by the state government of Florida, the health department's emergency preparedness involves a continuous and coordinated process of planning implementation, which relies on measuring performance and taking appropriate remedial action. Emergency planning has become increasingly important in the state of Florida due to constantly changing and unpredictable weather patterns, the rise of global terrorism and new disease threats. In effect, the state (through the department of health) is responsible for ensuring availability and accessibility of medical health care services readily. Although emergency preparedness and planning cannot eliminate all threats, well-coordinated, state-wide planning ensures that resources are deployed effectively and rapidly.

Analysis of Resources Listed on the Florida Department of Health's Website

In its website, the Florida Department of Health has listed some resources that are a critical component of its emergency preparedness and response plan. The resources are as follows:

• Disaster Workforce Credentialing: Credentialing is a system used by the state department of health to develop documentation that identifies emergency response personnel. The system helps in authenticating and verifying the qualifications of personnel by ensuring common standards for training, experience, medical and physical fitness and appropriate capacity for the position. As well, credentialing provides authorization for emergency response personnel to be within a specific area of operations for a swift response to threats (Florida Department of Health, 2018).
• Emergency Response System: the state government of Florida has implemented a robust emergency response system, which seeks to integrate seamlessly across local, state and federal emergency response efforts. The objective of this system is to assure residents of coordinated response actions. The actions are documented in procedures and plans, which are updated on a routine basis. Under this system, the Florida Division of Emergency Management is the lead organization for coordinating the state's emergency management activities. Besides, there is also the Regional Domestic Security Task Force. The task force comprises of first responders from the fields of fire, hazardous chemical spillage, and law enforcement. The task force utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach to provide support to the affected communities and individuals.
• FLHealthSystems: this is a computerized data system uses maximize emergency situational awareness and support emergency teams in vital preparedness, response and recovery activities. The state department of health recognizes that when an incident threatens residents, the ability to gather detailed data and share it with relevant agencies is critical to emergency preparedness. The FLHealthSystems is designed to facilitate fast, consistent and accurate communications. A key component of this system is an online emergency alert and notification network capable of rapid distribution of emergency messages to specific individuals. This system provides secure and real-time communications, which is crucial for sustainable emergency response (Florida Department of Health, 2018).
• Response Partners: Florida's emergency response and public health plans rely on the support of many stakeholders and partner agencies. These include not-for-profit organizations, public agencies, and private sector organizations. Examples include the Agency for Health Care Administration, Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Department of Elder Affairs, Department of Business & Professional Regulation, Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Hospital Association, State Fire Marshall and Medical Examiners Commission. Other notable agencies include the Florida Health Care Association, Florida Assisted Living Association, Poison Information Center Network, Florida Association of Community Health Centers and the American Red Cross.
• Strategic National Stockpile: Centers for Disease Control coordinates the Strategic National Stockpile program, whose mission is to provide essential medical and related supplies in sufficient quantities to state governments and communities that have exhausted their supplies during emergencies. Florida's Strategic National Stockpile prepares the state to distribute emergency resources provided by the federal government. The goal of this program is to minimize loss of lives during emergencies by providing the much-needed supplies and their resources to the affected communities within 48 hours of emergencies (Florida Department of Health, 2018).
• Radiation control: the radiation control program is responsible for addressing teats posed by radioactive materials. These include x-ray technologies, nuclear medicine technologies, laser technologies and mammography.

The above list has highlighted the main resources used by the Florida Department of Health in its emergency preparedness and response plan. Although these resources are robust, they are not sufficient to address the diverse threats facing the state. For example, for instance, Florida is prone to devastating natural disasters such as hurricanes. Although the Florida health department is prepared to deal with natural disasters, it is poorly equipped to deal with disasters on a mega scale. Such disasters cause massive destruction of infrastructure and necessitate mass evacuations. This is an important gap in the state's emergency preparedness and response plan, which should be reviewed to make the state even more resilient in the face of increasing threats. In light of this problem, it is suggested that the state expands the scope of its collaboration and partnerships to make its pan more effective and efficient. More specifically, the state should develop methodologies for working with local and state government in the neighboring states (Shrestha, Sosin, & Meltzer, 2012). Collaboration is an important resource, which will ensure that the state is not overwhelmed during major emergencies.

Role of Public Health Practitioner in the Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan

Public health practitioners have an important role to play in emergency preparedness and response. One of these roles is disaster mapping, which involves collecting data about potential disasters that may strike a given community. After an emergency, public health practitioners are needed to fill gaps that require the expertise and knowledge of public health professionals they can help in conducting community needs assessments to evaluate what the community needs after an emergency (Shrestha, Sosin & Meltzer, 2012). Public health practitioners can also help in resource mapping to determine what resource a community is left with after a disaster. Those who work in environmental health can be vital in considering any possible hazards that pose as threats to the local communities.

References

Florida Department of Health (2018). Emergency Preparedness & Response. Retrieved from http://www.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/emergency-preparedness-and-response/index.html

Shrestha, S. S., Sosin, D. M. & Meltzer, M. I. (2012). Planning for baseline medical care needs of a displaced population after a disaster. Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness, 6, 335-341.

Su, T. T., Saimy, B. I. & Bulgiba, A. M. (2013). Socioeconomic consequences of the 2004 tsunami: Policy implications for natural disaster management. Am J Prev Med, 57, 574-576.