Welcome to Expect Preparedness

Overview

The Community Preparedness Section in the Bureau of Preparedness and Response (BPR) shares the Florida Department of Health (DOH) responsibility for supporting the state’s public health and health care systems to respond to disasters and other public health emergencies. Therefore, the Section is responsible for promoting and supporting preparedness activities at the local level by developing, evaluating, and providing technical assistance for accomplishing the County Health Department (CHD) Preparedness Expectations; serving as liaison and point of contact for questions, concerns and needs related to CHD Preparedness, and by seeking and allocating funds locally consistent with cooperative agreements and statutory authority.

The County Health Department (CHD) Preparedness Capabilities have been prioritized, built, and assessed using the CHD Preparedness Expectations since 2007. Every year, the Expectations are assessed, and evaluation evidence is provided by the CHD or retrieved from the statewide data bases. Since 2012, the Community Preparedness Section has been able to analyze data to assess the status of the local preparedness levels across the state.

The Florida CHD Preparedness Expectations are closely aligned to the Center for Disease Control and Preventions publication Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Capabilities, National Standards for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Public Health, (October 2018), located at https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/readiness/capabilities.htm

The Role of Expect Preparedness

The purpose of this application is to provide automation support of CHD Preparedness activities as outlined in the Department's CHD Expectations document. The purpose of this guidance document is to establish the framework to enhance and standardize the CHD Preparedness activities. Consequently, it:

• defines priority preparedness capabilities and their functions for the Florida’s Public Health System aligned with the Annual Capability Assessment of the PHEP Cooperative Agreement;
• determines the deliverables to sustain and gradually build preparedness capabilities from a historical baseline;
• defines the planning and operational evaluation methodologies to describe the minimum requirement to demonstrate the achievement of each deliverable;
• presents information on preparedness capabilities and functions linked to each deliverable; establishes the gradual progression of deliverables and enhancement of the capabilities on a three-year timeline;
• utilizes broad and inclusive language to consider the common ground and the uniqueness of each CHD involvement in the local preparedness system; and
• provides additional materiel to help understand and complete the deliverables.

Key Capabilities

The CDC PHEP cooperative agreement outlines key preparedness capabilities, organized into six domains and two tiers. Tier 1 capability standards form the foundation for public health emergency preparedness and response. Tier 2 capability standards are more cross-cutting, and their development relies upon having Tier 1 capability standards established in collaboration with external partners and stakeholders.

Although jurisdictional public health agencies should consider prioritizing development of Tier 1 capabilities, jurisdictional risk assessment findings and other community factors also may influence jurisdictional prioritization of some Tier 2 capabilities. For example, based on risk assessment findings and depending on the public health agency’s ESF #8 role, a jurisdiction also may need to prioritize development of volunteer management strategies to ensure staffing support for medical countermeasure dispensing and administration activities.

Capability Composition

Each capability standard comprises capability functions, and each capability function contains specific capability tasks that are supported by multiple capability resource elements.

• Capability Title and Definitions - Each capability standard comprises capability functions, and each capability function contains specific capability tasks that are supported by multiple capability resource elements
• Capability Functions - Critical segments of the capability that must occur to achieve the capability definition
• Capability Tasks - Action steps aligned to one or more capability functions. Capability tasks must be accomplished to complete a capability function
• Capability Resource Elements - Resources a jurisdiction should have or have access to in order to successfully perform capability tasks associated with capability functions. Resource elements are listed sequentially to align with corresponding tasks in each function. While not necessarily listed first, “priority” resource elements are potentially the most critical for completing capability tasks based on jurisdictional risk assessments and other forms of community input. The three categories of capability resource elements are:
  • Preparedness - Components to consider within existing operational plans, standard operating procedures, guidelines, documents, or other types of written agreements, such as contracts or memoranda of understanding (MOUs)
  • Skills and Training - General baseline descriptions, competencies, and skills that personnel and teams should possess in order to achieve a capability
  • Equipment and Technology - Infrastructure a jurisdiction should have or have access to with sufficient quantities or levels of effectiveness to achieve the intent of any related capability task