Emergency Action Plan

According to California’s emergency operation plan

Stakeholders strive to promote community-based preparedness and planning across all sectors of society and disciplines. The plan’s main goal is to ensure that all sectors collaborate to efficiently respond to catastrophes. In this article, we will assess the communication and coordination between agencies in California during all phases of emergency management. We will be able to determine whether the state is capable of handling situations that arise as a result of good communication and collaboration between these various involved agencies. Additionally, we shall summarize the available resources that enable the state to handle the emergencies effectively. Furthermore, the paper analyses the current policy opportunities and challenges that exist in the emergency department. Lastly, the paper explains the ways in which the emergency preparedness plan is influenced by the historical disaster analysis, after which, a revised emergency operation plan is given based on the weaknesses identified during the evaluation.

Communication and collaboration between agencies

Largely, the communication and collaboration between agencies in California are good. First, there are toll-free lines that the people or citizens are meant to call in case of any emergency in a particular sector of the state, (Burnett and Parmer, 2009). Always, the police department is the first to be contacted. Immediately after the communication, the police sends agents to the scene to confirm the state of emergency and report the requirements needed to curb down the situation. However, this trend of information flow is always not followed for cases where there are disease outbreaks. For this case, any other department contacts the health department. The most important thing that can be realized from the emergency operation management plan of California is that all the concerned departments work hand in hand to make sure that the citizens are safe, together with their properties, (Burnett and Parmer, 2009). During disasters like earthquakes, the police department is the most active department that fights hard to rescue the lives of the victims and their properties. The survivors are always handed over to the health personnel who are always readily available. Moreover, the involved team members are all assigned radio calls, which are tuned to the same frequency to ease communication and avoid collisions and confusion while at the scene. Lastly, the media network is also kept active to make sure that the remaining population is notified of the ongoing operation. This kind of cooperation enables the California state to easily gain control of the situation during emergencies.

Summary of the available resources

The resources include an emergency preparedness resource inventory, which allows the local responders and planners to gather up the inventory of critical resources. These critical resources include equipment and personnel. Another resource is the alternate site locator, which aids in the location of the available alternative health care places where the patients can be taken. This resource helps in situations where the emergencies like the bioterrorist attacks take place. Lastly, the health emergency assistance line and triangle hub model helps in assisting the planners to develop a contact center for a public emergency.

Current policy challenges and opportunities in emergency management

First, one of the opportunities that help in emergency management is the effective transport infrastructure. The transportation infrastructure is strategically located and having access to other, local Emergency Management Agencies helps California to attain recovery in a very short period after the occurrence of any given disaster. Additionally, the public training programs that are available enable the government to teach its citizens on the ways in which they can respond to disasters as well as predict them, (Burnett and Parmer, 2009). Furthermore, the policy that allows the recruitment of volunteers in emergency management helps to lower the costs that the government would incur in disaster recovery. On the other hand, there are policy challenges that hinder the efficiency of the emergency management operations. Since volunteers sometimes fill up the staff, the commitment to work is sometimes lower than it would have been if the salary was to be given to all the people involved in the disaster recovery mission, (Open Door Clinic, 2003). Secondly, the policy does not devise means in which the revenue that is involved in the emergency management can be recovered to prepare for the next emergencies in the state, (Burnett and Parmer, 2009). Furthermore, some changes that are introduced in the healthcare system do not allow or give space to disaster victims or patients to be attended to on urgency basis.

How a historical analysis of disasters within the community may influence an emergency preparedness plan

Many countries prepare for emergencies depending on the nature of the previous emergencies experienced in particular communities. In cases where the historical emergency took a lot of revenue during the recovery process, the emergency preparedness agencies always secure a related amount to cater for the emergency that may arise or take place in other places. However, when it is found that the previous emergency or disaster took lesser revenue, then the planning department is tempted to secure a similar figure to prepare for the disaster that may arise as an emergency. This kind of planning puts the emergency operations management at a risk of failing to meet the costs involved in the recovery process.

Revised portion of the Emergency Operations Plan

Looking at the weakness of employing incompetent volunteers in the disaster recovery management, the state is always at a risk of failing to protect the people together with their properties as per the plan. However, to solve this problem, the government has to utilize the available training centers to equip the majority of the citizens with the disaster recovery skills. With this nature of planning, the majority of the volunteers in the emergency operations will know what to do, which will improve the efficiency of the personnel involved. Secondly, to do away with the weakness of negative changes in the healthcare system, which do not give a chance to disaster victims to be cared for as a priority, emergency sections should be constructed in various hospitals in California, (Brown and Sonia, 2002). This can help the patients to be given immediate attention during disaster times. However, for this trend to be maintained current, the training programs of the interested individuals should be continuous regardless of whether the emergencies are present or not.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, one can realize that the way in which the agencies communicate and collaborate during emergencies plays a big role in effectively handling the emergencies that arise in the California state. Additionally, the staffing policies, which sometimes allow the inexperienced volunteers to take part in the emergency operations management, make the plans to a lesser extent ineffective. Furthermore, the emergency preparedness plan highly depends on the nature of historical emergencies in California. This is the main reason as to why some plans fail to achieve the required objectives since every emergency comes in a new perspective. However, once the above-mentioned recommendations are put into practice, emergency management operations in California will become very effective than before.

References

Burnett, T., Parmer H.P. (2009). Emergency Operations Plan. Saddleback College Police Department.

Brown, BS, RN, Sonia. (2002). Clinic Disaster Plan Guidance. California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Sacramento.

Open Door Clinic. (2003). Emergency Procedures Flip Chart. Eureka.