Situation Report | July 27, 2020
The state Department of Health (DOH) Office of Emergency Preparedness (OHEP) says it will be holding an Interoperable Communications (IOC) exercise sometime prior to September 30.
OHEP made the announcement during a meeting with HCA and associations on our OHEP grant to incorporate home care and hospice into preparedness planning and activities.
The objectives of past IOC drills were to:
- Demonstrate the ability to use a primary and back-up communication system to communicate with coalition partners (local health departments, hospitals, EMS, emergency managers and others); and
- Complete a Health Commerce System (HCS) Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) Survey within the timeframe outlined in an Integrated Health Alerting and Notification System (IHANS) alert that was sent to agencies.
It is very important that agencies update their information in the HCS Communications Directory to ensure that they are contacted about the drill.