Public Health Preparedness
Summary Indicator Report Data View Options
Why Is This Important?
Our state's public health depends on the ability of our Department and partners to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from public health threats, whether natural or man-made.
Definition
Time (in days, hours, or minutes) until specified action
Data Sources
- Situational Awareness Network Software, Office of Emergency Preparedness, New Jersey Department of Health
(https://www.nj.gov/health/er/) - New Jersey Local Information Network and Communications System (NJLINCS) Health Alert Network, New Jersey Department of Health
(https://www.njlincs.net/default.aspx)
How the Measure is Calculated
Numerator: | See graph-specific numerators |
Denominator: | n/a |
How Are We Doing?
The turnaround time necessary to issue official information to the public about a public health emergency is mostly limited by personal interactions of the creators of the official information. Once that is completed, the actual dissemination via IT systems is virtually instantaneous. The time necessary to activate designated personnel met the Healthy New Jersey 2020 objective in 2012 due to technical improvements in the NJLINCS Communicator software. An additional time decrease the following year was due to reorganizing team rosters and call-down procedures. The time increased in 2017 due to a structural change in how the emergency drill is conducted, administered, and evaluated. Hurricane Irene, in 2011, and Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, required much longer than average time to create after action reports. If those events are excluded from analysis, the annual averages for those two years would be closer to the 2013 figure, which is below the 2020 target. Since the target for the original Objective PHP-3 (Reduce the time for State public health agencies to establish after action reports and improvement plans following responses to public health emergencies and exercises to 120 days.) was met and maintained, a new objective was created to replace it that focuses on implementation of plans, rather than just the establishment of plans.
Available Services
[https://www.nj.gov/health/er/ Emergency Preparedness] information in English and Spanish
Health Program Information
NJDOH Office of Disaster Resilience: [http://nj.gov/health/er/]