Weber-Morgan Health Emergency Response

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

"I'M NOT SCARED WHEN I'M PREPARED"
Involving children in your family preparedness provides them with a sense of calm and confidence when an actual crises arises. WMHD has teamed with the Weber-Morgan Medical Reserve Corps to help children earn their own preparedness cinch sac, an emergency starter kit for kids.

Parents Request a Pack for Your Child
Fun Activities for Kids

For some years prior to and every year since the unfortunate events of September 11, 2001, funding for emergency preparedness has been filtered into States and local entities for the express purpose of public health preparedness and emergency response. The Weber-Morgan Health Department receives federal funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) that enables us to prepare not only ourselves, but the community for a public heath event.

Planning for every emergency is impossible, but efforts are made to ensure coordination with local emergency planning committees and other local response partners is occurring in order to respond as efficiently and effectively as possible. “All hazards planning” is a primary area of focus and includes planning and response, equipment and pharmaceuticals, facility readiness, personnel and education, and information technology and communication.

Hazard & Vulnerability Analysis

Public Health Epidemiological Investigation

Emergency Public Information

Worker Health and Safety

Isolation & Quarantine

Mass Prophylaxis & Vaccination

Medical & Public Health Surge

Economic & Community Recovery

Test

We have a full-time Emergency Response Coordinator on staff, along with a Public Information Officer (PIO), and an Epidemiology and Surveillance nurse. The entire staff of the Weber-Morgan Health Department has been trained to operate during a disaster or public health event through various forms of work sessions, tabletop exercises, and mass clinic exercises.

The Utah Department of Health has in place at the Weber-Morgan Health Department a Regional Epidemiologist to assist the health department in establishing and operating disease surveillance systems and reporting diseases and conditions. Mr. Glen Kinney works with Weber-Morgan approximately three days per week and with Bear River Health Department in Logan two days a week. He assists with disease interviews or epidemiological investigations, as well as health assessments and training.

A mass clinic vaccination plan is in place and has been exercised by the department numerous times. This plan enables the health department to quickly and efficiently provide a large number of residents within a short period of time vaccinations that may reduce or eliminate symptoms of a highly infectious disease. For example, select strains of the influenza virus have proven historically to spread quickly throughout the United States. If unvaccinated, many residents within Weber and Morgan Counties could become sick. Our plan allows us to set up vaccination clinics at remote locations in order to provide many people in a short time period an antibiotic to help fight the virus.

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/.