A major component of emergency preparedness is coordination of resources, personnel, and communication. Coordination with Indian Health Clinics (IHC) introduces unique challenges during major events. Indian Health Clinics not only service a broad geographic area and a culturally separate community, they must work within and parallel to the framework of local, state, and federal public health. Innovative tools are required to assist in these coordination and communication efforts.
The virtual Emergency Operations Center (vEOC) fulfills an important function in the coordination of emergency response and communication, and improves emergency response during a real event. NAAEP contracted Eigence to design and develop the vEOC, which enables the 38 IHC in California and interagency emergency preparedness partners to share realtime information in an emergency situation. The VEOC enhances communication in any situation by providing a suite of web conferencing, mapping, searching, updating, and monitoring tools that allow users to:
- Share a consistent picture of a situation as it unfolds
- Quickly locate facilities and resources on a map
- Get real time updates of status and available resources
- Search a database for facilities that meet some criteria
- Search the web for anything located near an incident
- Post notifications to members participating in a conference
- Update contact information and provide real time status
- Update inventory of available resources in real time
The use of Eigence’s Virtual Emergency Operations Center application (VEOC) in the operations of the Native American Alliance for Emergency Preparedness was presented at the November, 2009 APHA Conference in Philadelphia. Download our APHA presentation for more details on the features of this application and how it improves communication in real time situations.