By: Meghan Stepanek, Director, BCHD Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response 

When a novel virus spreads across the country …

A hospital physician sees a patient that meets a case definition and calls to report her findings.

A BCHD epidemiologist investigates a suspected case and coordinated with the state health department for a lab sample to be sent.

When a tornado rips through our community …

A friend offers to let a mother and daughter with special needs stay while their home is repaired.

A BCHD nurse reports to a disaster shelter to assist with patient assessment.

When a severe snow storm hits the city …

A neighbor helps shovel an elderly man’s walkway to ensure he can safely leave his house to go to a chemotherapy appointment.

A BCHD Field Health Service worker talks with a dialysis center to ensure that appointments can continue for scheduled transports.

When a heat wave brings scorching temperatures…

A grandson checks on his grandmother who doesn’t have air conditioning.

A BCHD senior center worker ensures that people seeking relief from the heat in cooling centers on a declared Code Red day have water.

When a flu pandemic is spreading rapidly….

A colleague explains to another that it’s important for them get vaccinated to prevent spread of illness in the workplace.

A BCHD facilities worker assists in bringing extra supplies to clinic sites that are needed to protect staff and their patients.

In emergencies of all types, Baltimore City community members respond at the individual level, within neighborhoods, as government agencies and healthcare organizations. Public health response begins at the most basic level. Many of you are involved in it on an ongoing basis for yourself and your family without thinking of it as protecting our collective health and safety.

At BCHD, we are also engaged in ongoing preparedness and response. For government public health response, you often hear about the CDC as the nation’s health protection agency,working 24/7 to protect America from health and safety threats. Their role was more apparent than ever in news stories covering the nation’s response to the Ebola outbreak. 

What you might not know is that our local health department has also been 24/7 in Baltimore City since 1793. Our department was first formed in response to a public health emergency when a yellow fever outbreak in Fells Point brought together a group of physicians to control the spread of illness. Since then, our health department team has worked continuously to prepare for and respond to emergent public health needs

Like other response agencies in our City and across the country, the department has long used the Incident Command System (ICS) to structure ourselves for larger emergency response efforts. Since 2008, we have further organized the department into a tier structure that not only identifies personnel on the ICS leadership team but also highlights the expected involvement of all supervisors, staff with skill sets often needed in response as well as anyone who works as part of BCHD.

In severe weather as well as other incident types, the health department is involved to address public health issues in support of our other local agencies under the coordination of theMayor’s Office of Emergency Management. In some emergencies when public health concerns are the primary issue in a response such as in a pandemic flu, bioterrorism incident, large-scale outbreak, etc., the health department directs or coordinates local actions with guidance fromDHMH and CDC. While large-scale public health emergencies may not happen as frequently as some other emergency types, our planning around them is all the more important because of the potential impact.

We know that our strongest partners are the community members who have always been working 24/7 to ensure that their families, friends, neighbors and communities maintain good health and stay safe. We share that goal and want to continue to stay engaged in strengthening our collective efforts. As we begin the new year, we encourage you to take small steps to prepare. Check out http://do1thing.com as well as our BCHD website that includes more resources http://health.baltimorecity.gov/programs/emergency-preparedness-response

The BCHD Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) is available to deliver outreach presentations to community groups as well as share information on what you can do to help prepare for health concerns in emergencies. For more information, contact OPHPR at 443-984-2622 or OPHPR@baltimorecity.gov