Situation:

Santa Clara County in California did not have a plan for how to deal with and respond to all aspects of an environmental health emergency.

Need:

Santa Clara County needed three deliverables: a document that would identify and clarify roles, responsibilities, and best practices within the county for dealing with an environmental health emergency; an in-person training based on the new plan; and implementation of a tabletop exercise to test the new plan.

Solution:

Hagerty met with the planning team and subject matter experts in the Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health (DEH). The Hagerty team gathered information about roles and responsibilities, best practices, and normal operations. The team consulted the DEH Continuity of Operations Plan and Operational Area Emergency Operations Plan, as well as the state’s Public Health and Medical Emergency Operations Manual to make sure the proposed recommendations would mesh well with existing plans, policies, and procedures.

Outcome:

The finished Emergency Response Project (ERP) included operating procedures for 10 functional areas, a communications supplement, a profile of local hazards, and a recommended organizational structure based on the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System.

The second phase of the project had the Hagerty team create and deliver in-person training on the new ERP to stakeholders from DEH, the Public Health Department, the Office of Emergency Services, and the Emergency Medical Services Agency. The team supplemented the in-person training with an on-demand recorded version, suitable for uploading online and extending training opportunities to additional staff.

The final deliverable was to develop and execute a tabletop exercise based on the new ERP. The exercise followed and was fully compliant with the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP). Hagerty also developed the Situation Manual used during the exercise, led the exercise, and wrote the After Action Report.