Capability Cliff Notes Series PHEP Capability 14—Responder Safety and Health What Is It And How Will We Measure It?

Learning Objectives Become familiar with Capability Functions Become familiar with Tasks that complete the Functions Understand how these Functions and Tasks are measured or may be measured in the future (Performance Measures)

Responder Safety and Health The responder safety and health capability describes the ability to protect public health agency staff responding to an incident and the ability to support the health and safety needs of hospital and medical facility personnel, if requested. How can public health departments protect their staff and help to protect the health of health-care or first responder personnel?

Responder Safety and Health Functions: What Are Steps for Protecting Responders Safety and Health? Identify responder safety and health risks Identify safety and personal protective needs Coordinate with partners to give risk-specific safety and health training Monitor responder safety and health actions

Capabilities and Measures Resources The presentation will be an overview of what the functions and tasks mean, linked to the performance measures. Please note that since the capabilities PDF document has come out, more performance measures have been developed. If performance measures have come out since the creation of the capabilities document below, they have been included in these tutorials following their function slide, even if the PDF lists that there are no measures for that function. For functions that still have no measures, questions for health departments to begin thinking about measures have been included instead. For exact lists of the capabilities and performance measures, and data collected for the measures, documents can be found at these links: For Capabilities, Functions, and Tasks: For Performance Measures:

Function 1: Identify responder safety and health risks Tasks: What steps should health departments take to ensure responder safety and health? 1.Before an incident, identify the medical or environmental exposure, and mental/behavioral health risks that staff may face who respond to the public health incident, based on the risk assessment and information from partner agencies. 2.Before an incident, identify subject matter experts and other informational resources that can be used by public health staff to make health and safety recommendations to the Incident Safety Officers or lead agency. 3.Before and during an incident, work with subject matter experts to develop information on acute and chronic health conditions that may develop during and after an exposure. Tasks continued on next slide:

Function 1: Identify responder safety and health risks Tasks: What steps should health departments take to ensure responder safety and health? Tasks Cont’d: 3.With the Incident Safety Officer and subject matter experts, participate in creating recommendations for the Incident Commander about responder- specific risks to be addressed in incident action plans. 4.Give safety materials to public health responders through daily meetings at the onset of, and throughout an incident, with the Incident Safety Officer and subject matter experts.

Function 1 Measurement How does CDC measure if health departments or other responsible organizations have an adequate responder safety and health program? Same Performance Measure for Functions 1, 3, 4: Does the health department have a deployment safety and health program in place for public health responders, that includes the following elements?: Screening to meet medical requirements before deployment Risk-specific training on hazard awareness and recognition, communication of potential personal risks, and proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), before and at the time of an incident Monitoring of exposure, mental/behavioral health, and medical condition during and after an incident Access to needed PPE or medical countermeasures such as vaccine or medication. Other data elements that are included in calculating this measure can be found in PHEP Performance Measures on pgs :

Function 2: Identify safety and personal protective needs Tasks: What are the steps for meeting personal protective and safety needs for responders? 1.Before and during an incident, work with subject matter experts to identify responder safety and health resource requirements, such as equipment. 2.Before and during an incident, with subject matter experts, create recommendations for public health responders about personal protective equipment (PPE) that follow local requirements. 3.Coordinate with partner agencies to provide medical countermeasures and/or personal protective equipment for public health responders, as needed.

Function 2 Measurement How does the CDC measure whether responder safety and personal protection needs are being identified? There are currently no CDC performance measures for this function. However to measure whether the correct safety needs have been identified for responders, consider the following questions: Has there been any discussion of responder risks, with subject matter experts, using risk assessments? Have there been any meetings with local partners about responder needs? Have there been any recommendations created? If so, with whom have these recommendations been shared?

Function 3: Coordinate with partners to facilitate risk-specific safety and health training Tasks: What steps will ensure that public health departments can provide appropriate training in safety and health? 1.Prior to an incident, and as applicable during an incident, work with subject matter experts to recommend risk-specific training (both training for protective actions as well as training for response to exposure or injury).

Function 3 Measurement How does CDC measure if health departments or other responsible organizations have an adequate responder safety and health program? Same Performance Measure for Functions 1, 3, 4: Does the health department have a deployment safety and health program in place for public health responders, that includes the following elements?: Screening to meet medical requirements before deployment Risk-specific training on hazard awareness and recognition, communication of potential personal risks, and proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), before and at the time of an incident Monitoring of exposure, mental/behavioral health, and medical condition during and after an incident Access to needed PPE or medical countermeasures such as vaccine or medication. Other data elements that are included in calculating this measure can be found in PHEP Performance Measures on pgs :

Function 4: Monitor responder safety and health actions Tasks: How should health departments monitor responders’ safety and health during response? 1.Conduct surveillance for exposure, mental/behavioral health, and medical condition of public health incident responders before, during, and after an incident. 2.Coordinate with healthcare partners to provide access to medical and mental/behavioral health services for responders. 3.Provide guidance to partner organizations to monitor incident-related health outcomes among responder staff. Tasks continued on next slide:

Function 4: Monitor responder safety and health actions Tasks: How should health departments monitor responders’ safety and health during response? Tasks Cont’d: 3.Use surveillance data and other input from partner agencies to provide recommendations for changes in the use of personal protective equipment, if needed. 4.Support the Public Information Officer and partner agencies to communicate risks to responders after the acute phase of an incident. Include risks known before the incident and those discovered during and after the acute phase.

Function 4 Measurement How does CDC measure if health departments or other responsible organizations have an adequate responder safety and health program? Same Performance Measure for Functions 1, 3, 4: Does the health department have a deployment safety and health program in place for public health responders, that includes the following elements?: Screening to meet medical requirements before deployment Risk-specific training on hazard awareness and recognition, communication of potential personal risks, and proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), before and at the time of an incident Monitoring of exposure, mental/behavioral health, and medical condition during and after an incident Access to needed PPE or medical countermeasures such as vaccine or medication. Measures continued on next slide:

Function 4 Measurement Cont’d How does the CDC measure how well health departments monitor the safety and health of responders? Percentage of deployed public health responders screened for medical readiness before deployment and processed out after deployment Numerator: Number of deployed public health responders screened for medical readiness before deployment and processed out after deployment Denominator: Number of public health responders deployed Percentage of public health responders who were injured, ill, exposed, or killed as a result of deployment during an incident Numerator: Number of public health responders who were injured, ill, exposed, or killed as a result of deployment during an incident Denominator: Number of public health responders deployed Other data elements that are included in calculating this measure can be found in PHEP Performance Measures on pgs :

Questions? Please contact: Rachel Coles Program Evaluator--CDPHE