1. Rapid Needs Assessment: Where Washington’s Headed

2. The Challenge
Rapidly and regularly getting accurate information about the health and medical needs of a disaster-struck community to the right people in time to make a difference
Why? To allow for the smartest possible decisions concerning the allocation of limited resources
secondarily to document need for “presidential” disaster declaration

3. Organizing the information
Most important “Primary Information”
Less important (yet still urgent) “Secondary Information”

4. What’s Most Important? Nature of the primary problem
Scope of the event
# killed, sickened, injured
Status of most important resources:
medical staff
critical facilities
critical equipment
critical supplies

5. How to characterize status
Green
no significant shortages
Amber
some shortages, none critical
Red
critical shortages
Allow space for details!

6. What Else is Urgent, but a bit less so?
Secondary impacts on health & medical
Status of other important resources
Mental health
Medical examiner & mortuaries
Labs
Isolation & Quarantine facilities
Hazards to responders

7. So, who’s going to collect this info?
LHJ initially
State liaison, once deployed
Federal staff too?

8. Another Source of Info

9. When/how often to report/collect
Initial report of primary information ASAP
Secondary info and updates as needed
at least once daily
becomes part of overall “SitRep”