Emergency operations coordination in health care is the ability of health care organizations to engage with incident management at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) or with on-scene incident management to coordinate information and resource allocation for affected health care organizations. This is done through multi-agency coordination representing health care organizations or by integrating this coordination into plans and protocols that guide incident management to make the appropriate decisions.
Coordination ensures that health care organizations, incident management, and the public have relevant and timely information about the status and needs of the health care delivery system in the community. This enables health care organizations to coordinate their response with that of the community response according to the framework of the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
National Incident Management System (NIMS)
All emergency preparedness and response efforts will be consistent with the National Response Framework and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS provides a structure for emergency responders at all levels to work together in a coordinated manner. The ability to coordinate using NIMS is essential for effectively managing a medical or public health emergency.