Tabletop exercises are one of the strategies that the public health workforce can use to convene and engage their community partners. This resource provides state and local public health entities with information and guidance on the key ingredients to consider when developing and facilitating a bioterrorism tabletop exercise.

This toolkit serves as a resource for local public health departments to develop plans for medical mass care. The toolkit provides scalable, operational direction and tools for the establishment of alternative care sites, i.e. Influenza Care Centers (ICC) to meet the health care needs of patients requiring hospital care who are not able to receive such care at one of the local hospitals. Although the guide focuses on pandemic influenza, the approaches described and the tools provided can be adapted for other medical-health emergencies and hazards requiring medical mass care.

This resource contains peer reviews of a variety of exercise and evaluation documents that have been prepared to assist public health emergency planners. Most are directed to public health practitioners, while some are written for first responders and others are designed for use in a hospital setting, highlighting the roles of partners in emergency preparedness. All may be adapted for use by local health departments.

This toolkit is designed to assist local health departments in developing a program for home care providers to integrate emergency preparedness into their daily activities with their clients. The toolkit includes participant materials and customizable promotional items. Original files are available by request.

The Cambridge Advanced Practice Center for Emergency Preparedness has developed materials to assist local health departments in creating public health mutual aid agreements. These materials have been used to develop and implement a public health mutual aid agreement in a 27-community region in Massachusetts. The materials include 5 PDF documents that can help local health departments begin the process of creating jurisdiction appropriate mutual aid agreements: Public Health Mutual Aid Agreement: A Template Explanation of a Public Health Mutual Aid Agreement Scenarios for Use of a Public Health Mutual Aid Agreement Frequently Asked Questions: Public Health Mutual Aid A Public Health Mutual Aid Agreement: White Paper

This tool guides an experienced Local Health Department (LHD) administrator or Incident Commander (IC) through decision-making processes to allocate staff between two major types of public health operations both in advance of, and during, a public health emergency. Disease investigation (surveillance, investigation, contact tracing, and case management) due to a naturally occurring disease, food-borne outbreak, or bioterrorist event Mass prophylaxis (using medicines or vaccines to mitigate disease) While the tool applies to any incident calling for both disease investigation and prophylaxis operations, it is aimed at larger scale emergency operations requiring rapid decision-making to obtain and allocate surge staff resources—decisions that may have to be justified to and approved by authorities within, or outside of, the LHD. This tool is comprised of three distinct worksheets: Decision points in a flow diagram representing various points in disease investigation and mass prophylaxis operations Response questions for decision-makers to consider when collecting information to make decisions Staffing needs based on plans, the scenario, and specific decisions Although intended for disease investigation and mass prophylaxis operations, this tool operates within a greater public health context that may involve other interventions (e.g., isolation & quarantine, social distancing, and risk communication). This tool organizes complex information into simpler categories that will help determine resource needs based on the local situation, operational objectives, plans, and partnerships. For example: Tested plans that will achieve operational objectives. Risk communication plans to make the public an informed partner able to adhere to public health recommendations or requirements. Partner organizations that provide staffing resources to LHD operations, or that independently conduct operations. The tool includes a example emergency scenario to illustrate the proper use of the tool and a related public health decision-making pathway.