Public Health Practices

Arizona state education and health officials collaborated with school districts and local health departments to develop an 8-week language arts and math curriculum for students in grades K-12 to use during prolonged school closures.

In December 2008, before the first case of H1N1 pandemic influenza was discovered, Purdue University drafted a plan that outlines how essential and non-essential employees would access its campuses. The plan, developed by Purdue's Pandemic Preparedness Committee, includes a useful appendix: Essential Function Staff Recommendation. The document provides a system of color-coding employee groups that may enhance public health and emergency preparedness planning.

The University of Minnesota Pandemic Influenza Response Plan is an annex to the broader campus emergency operations plan. The plan outlines specific response actions in 12 areas:

• Officer of the Day (campus level official in charge)
• Internal/External Coordination-Academic Health Center
• Internal/External Coordination-Emergency Management
• Communications
• Campus Infrastructure
• Teaching
• Research
• Housing

Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters (CARD) created an emergency planning guide for community-based organizations that describes staff preparedness and outreach to clientele, while also covering the types of activities that should and should not be assigned to spontaneous volunteers (ie, volunteers that just "show up" and wish to help).

The Emergency Preparedness Checklist is designed to ensure that clients receiving home care and case management services are better able to cover gaps in their own care during emergencies. They are encouraged through this clear, simple planning checklist to take a few key planning steps: have a conversation about emergency preparedness; develop an emergency plan; and gather a three days or more supply of nine essential items in preparation for an emergency event.

A collaborative effort between public health and local courts resulted in a document that aims to prepare the court system for an influenza pandemic. The guidance provides a local judicial system with a thorough and succinct overview of guidelines, procedures, and specific directions to follow during a pandemic. Guidelines are built on the premise that a local court system must maintain its functional operations during an emergency to ensure justice for the people.

The Extended Childcare materials provide a process through which state employees could contract childcare services if they are required to respond to an emergency. This practice may be seen as an all-hazards approach to recognizing and assessing childcare availability as a potential barrier to HCWs' willingness to work during a pandemic.

New York State convened forums for news media personnel in various regions throughout the state.

A process for integrating ambulatory care centers into hospital surge capacity response plans is described in this document. The workgroup involved in the process built on the assets of ambulatory care centers to develop a set of roles they may fill in hospital emergency response.