|
A TO Z
A | B | C
| D | E | F | G
| H | I | J | K
| L | M | N | O
| P | Q | R | S
| T | U | V | W
| X | Y | Z
A
ACIP --
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
AGO --
Washington State Attorney General's Office
AHA -- American Hospital Association
AMA -- American Medical Association
APHL -- Association of Public Health
Laboratories
ARC -- American Red Cross
- ART --
Assessment and Response Team
-
The Secretary of Health and Department of Health's
Senior Management Team. The team assesses the severity of emergencies and
manages the Department of Health's overall response plan.
-
- Bioterrorism
-
The intentional use of microorganisms, or toxins,
derived from living organisms, to produce death or disease in humans, animals,
or plants.
- BSL-- Bio-safety Level
-
A method for rating laboratory safety. Laboratories are
designated BSL 1, 2, or 3 based on the practices, safety equipment, and
standards they employ to protect their workers from infection by the agents
they handle. BSL 1 laboratories are suitable for handling low-risk agents;
BSL-2 laboratories are suitable for processing moderate risk agents; and BSL 3
laboratories can safely handle high-risk agents.
BT -- Bioterrorism
- Board of Health
-
The Washington State Board of Health has ten members,
nine of whom are appointed by the Governor. The tenth member is the Secretary
of the State Department of Health. The membership includes people who are
experienced in matters of health and sanitation, elected officials, local
health officers, and citizen consumers of health care. The board provides a
forum for the development of public health policy and has rulemaking authority
to protect public health, improve health status, and promote and assess the
quality, cost, and accessibility of health care throughout the state.
-
- BRAC -- Bioterrorism Response
Advisory Committee
-
Committee consisting of Department of Health partners
and stakeholders that advises the Department of Health on the creation of its
plan for bioterrorism preparedness and response.
-
-
- Category "A" Agents
-
The possible biological terrorism agents having the
greatest potential for adverse public health impact with mass casualties. The
Category "A" agents are:
-
Smallpox
-
Anthrax
-
Plague
-
Botulism
-
Tularemia
-
Viral hemorrhagic fevers (e.g. Ebola and Lassa viruses)
- CD -- Communicable Disease
-
- CDC -- Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention
-
A branch of the federal Department of Health and Human
Services. The CDC manages Washington's Cooperative Agreement for Public Health
Preparedness and Response for Bioterrorism.
-
- CEMP --
Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan
-
The overarching jurisdictional emergency plan at the
state level and at most local jurisdictions.
-
- CFH --
Community and Family Health
-
Division of the Washington State Department of Health.
-
- COMDIS
-
A Department of Health-hosted list serve that
facilitates communications between disease control specialists across the
state.
-
- Cooperative agreements
-
Federal grants for bioterrorism preparedness and
response from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health
Resources and Services Administration.
-
- COT -- Committee on Terrorism
-
A committee formed by Washington's Emergency Management
Council at the request of Governor Locke to develop strategies to address
threats and acts of terror.
-
- Critical agents
-
The biological and chemical agents likely to be used in
weapons of mass destruction and other bio- terrorist attacks. Current lists may
be found on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site:
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/Agentlist.asp
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/AgentlistChem.asp
CSB -- Center for the Study of Bioterrorism and
Emerging Infections at St. Louis University School of Health
-
- DCD -- Disease Condition Database
-
Washington State's electronic repository for a wide
range of health data including notifiable conditions (in development)
-
DHS
-- Department of Homeland Security.
-
In 2002, 22 federal agencies were consolidated into the new Department of
Homeland Security to help protect the nation from terrorist threats, assist in
natural disaster relief, and provide citizenship services.
-
- DIRM --
Division of Information Resource Management
-
Division of the Washington State Department of Health.
-
- DIS --
Washington State Department of Information Services
-
- Disaster
-
A large emergency event that is beyond the community's
ability to address within its own and mutual aid resources.
-
- DOH --
Washington State Department of Health
DOJ -- Department of
Justice
DSHS -- Washington
State Department of Social and Health Services
Back to top
E
- EDI -- Electronic Data Interchange
EDTH -- Department of Health Electronic
Data Transfer Hub
- Emergency management
-
A systematic program of activities that governments and
their partners undertake before, during and after a disaster to save lives,
prevent injury, and to protect property and the natural environment. Emergency
management activities include:
-
Mitigation: eliminating hazards or reducing
their potential impact
-
Preparedness: planning, training, and exercising
for disastrous events
-
Response: taking action when a disaster
occurs to save lives, prevent injuries, and prevent or limit property damage
-
-
Recovery:
restoring normalcy after the disaster
These activities are not the sole responsibility of the
designated emergency management agency. Virtually all agencies have a role, but
most particularly law enforcement, fire services, public works, and public
health.
EH --
Environmental Health
Division of the Washington State Department of Health.
EHSPHL --
Epidemiology, Health Statistics and Public Health Lab
Division of the Washington State Department of Health.
EMA -- Emergency management agency (local)
- EMD -- Washington
State Emergency Management Division
-
A division of the Washington Military Department
EMS --
Emergency medical services
- EOC --
Emergency operations center
The facility from which a jurisdiction or agency
coordinates it response to major emergencies/disasters - there may be a state
EOC, county EOC, city EOC and/or agency EOC.
Epi -- Epidemiology-
The scientific study of diseases; includes analyzing the occurence and
distribution of diseases and the factors that govern their spread.
ER -- Emergency room
- ERC --
Emergency response coordinator
Person authorized to direct implementation of an
agency's emergency response plan.
ESF --
Emergency support function
A portion of a comprehensive emergency management plan
(federal, state, or local) that describes activities related to a single
function. For instance, in Washington's comprehensive emergency management plan
(ESF-8 describes Health and Medical Services).
Epidemiologist
A professional skilled in disease investigation.
Epidemiologists design and conduct epidemiological studies, analyze data to
detect patterns and trends in disease, establish and maintain surveillance
systems, monitor health status and evaluate the performance and cost
effectiveness of public health programs.
F
FDA --
Food and Drug Administration
FEMA --
Federal Emergency Management Agency
- First responders
- Local fire, law
enforcement, HazMat, emergency medical services, and hospital emergency room
personnel.
Focus areas
Categories of emergency preparedness activities states
must address in their Cooperative Agreements for Public Health Preparedness and
Response for Bioterrorism. Focus areas cover the following topics:
-
Focus Area A
: Preparedness planning and readiness assessment
Focus Area B:
Disease detection and reporting
Focus Area C: Laboratory readiness
Focus Area D: Chemical threat preparedness
Focus Area E: Electronic information sharing
Focus Area F:
Public health communications
Focus Area G: Education and training
FRP --
Federal Response Plan -- The overarching emergency
management plan of the US government.
Back to top
H
- Health alerts
Urgent messages from the CDC to health officials requiring
immediate action or attention. The CDC also issues health advisories containing
less urgent information about a specific health incident or response that may
or may not require immediate action, and health updates, which do not
require action.
HAN -- Health Alert Network
Infrastructure for the secure transmission of disease
information between local health jurisdictions, the Department of Health, and
its other partners using the intergovernmental network as its backbone.
HAN Information Service
Health Alert Network Information Service provides information in
a variety of media, along with announcements of upcoming conferences and
briefings.
HAN LHAP -- Health Alert Network Local
Health Assistance Project
The project provides helps local health jurisdictions enhance
and maintain state of the art network and security operations, and achieve
compliance with the PHIN standards.
HAZMAT -- Hazardous materials
HHS -- US
Department of Health and Human Services
- HRSA -- Health
Resources and Services Administration
-
A branch of the federal Department of Health and Human
Services. HRSA administers the funding and implementation of Washington's
Cooperative Agreement for Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness.
-
- HSQA
-- Health Systems Quality Assurance
-
Division of the Washington State Department of Health.
I
- ICS -- Incident
Command System
-
The direction and control scheme used by first response
and other agencies to manage emergencies.
J
- JIC -- Joint
Information Center
-
A central point of contact for
all news media near the scene of a large-scale disaster. The center is
staffed by public information officials who represent all
participating federal, state, and local agencies to provide
information to the media in a coordinated and consistent manner.
L
L & I -- Washington State Department of Labor and
Industries
- Laboratory levels (A,B,C,D)
-
A system for
classifying laboratories by their capabilities. Classifications are:
A: routine clinical testing. Includes independent clinical labs
and those at universities and community hospitals
B: more specialized capabilities. Includes many state and local
public health laboratories
C: More sophisticated public health labs and reference labs
such as those run by CDC.
D. Possessing sophisticated containment equipment and expertise
to deal with the most dangerous, virulent pathogens and include only
CDC and Department of Defense labs, the FBI, and the U.S. Army Medical
Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
LERC -- Local
Emergency Response Coordinator
L-LERC -- Local Lead Emergency Response
Coordinator
- LHJ -- Local
Health Jurisdiction
-
Washington's
public health services are delivered through 34 local health
jurisdictions.
-
- LIMS -- Laboratory Information Management
System
-
LIMS connect the analytical instruments in the lab to one or
more workstations or personal computers. A full-featured LIMS will forward data
from lab instruments to a PC, organize it into meaningful information, and
arrange it in required report formats.
-
- LRN --Laboratory
Response Network
-
A national partnership of public health laboratories
designed to coordinate and share resources for a effective response during a
health emergency.
-
-
- MMRS --
Metropolitan Medical Response System
-
A program of the US Health and Human Services Office of
Emergency Preparedness intended to increase cities' ability to respond to a
terrorist attack by coordinating the efforts of local law enforcement, fire,
hazmat, EMS, hospital, public health and other personnel. Seattle, Spokane, and
Tacoma participate in the MMRS program.
-
- MRTE -- Medical Readiness,
Training, and Education committee
-
A regional workgroup of state health agency
representatives, including one from the Department of Health, that facilitates
local-state-federal planning integration.
N
NACCHO -- National Association of City and
County Health Officials
- NCID -- National Center for Infectious Diseases
-
A branch of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
-
- NCPHP --
Northwest Center for Public Health Preparedness
-
Located in the University of Washington School of
Public Health and Community Medicine, the center works with the Department of
Health to assess and provide emergency and bioterrorism preparedness and
response training.
-
- NEDSS --
National Electronic Disease Surveillance System
-
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative
that promotes the use of data and information system standards to improve
disease surveillance systems at federal, state and local levels.
-
- NIH --
National Institutes of Health.
-
A branch of the federal Department of Health and Human
Services. The NIH encourages and oversees medical and behavioral research.
-
-
Notifiable conditions
-
Incidences of
communicable disease, traumatic injury, cancer or other health
condition that a state requires health care providers to report to a
central collecting agency.
-
- NDMS --
National Disaster Medical System
-
A federal program that dispatches out-of-state medical
teams to an area that has suffered a disaster.
-
- NPS --
National Pharmaceutical Stockpile (now Strategic National Stockpile, SNS)
-
A national cache of drugs, vaccines, and supplies that
can be deployed to areas struck by disasters, including bioterrorism.
O
- OER -- Office
of Emergency Response
-
Division of the US Department of Health and Human
Services.
-
- OPHP -- Office of Public Health
Preparedness
-
Office within the U.S. Office of Health and Human Services that
provides coordination between the CDC and HRSA Cooperative Agreements.
-
- OS --
Office of the Secretary
-
Division of the Washington State Department of Health.
P
- Pathogen
-
Any agent or organism that can cause disease.
-
- PHIMS --
Public Health Issues Management System
-
A Web-based system that will provide local health care
agencies and providers with a secure, confidential mechanism for reporting
disease surveillance data (under development).
-
- PHIN -- Public Health Information Network
-
Standards that provide the basis for developing and implementing
information technology projects for CDC-funded programs including NEDSS, HAN,
and others.
PHPPO -- CDC's Public Health Practice Program
Office
- Public health regions
-
Local health
jurisdictions are organized into 9 regions. Each region will develop a plan for
resource sharing and coordinated emergency response that will align with the
state emergency management plan and will include hospitals, emergency medical
services, law enforcement and fire protection districts.
The regions, with the
lead county or health agency for each region listed first and in bold,
are:
-
Snohomish - Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan
-
Bremerton-Kitsap -Clallam, Jefferson
-
Thurston - Lewis, Pacific, Grays Harbor, Mason
-
Southwest (Clark, Skamania) - Cowlitz, Wahkiakum
-
Pierce
-
King
-
Chelan-Douglas-Okanogan, Grant, Kittitas
-
Benton-Franklin-Walla Walla, Yakima, Klickitat
-
Spokane North-Adams, Asotin, Columbia, Garfield,
Lincoln, NE Tri (Ferry, Stevens Pend Oreille), Whitman.
- PHEPR --
Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response
-
Washington State Department of Health's overarching
public health emergency preparedness and response initiative.
-
- PHTN -- Public
Health Training Network
-
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
distance learning system that uses instructional media ranging from print-based
to videotape and multimedia to meet the training needs of the public health
workforce nationwide.
-
- PODRS -- Provider Online Data Registry
System
-
An online registry of licensed healthcare providers that have volunteered to
assist in the event of a bioterrorism attack. A Washington State Department of
Health project.
-
- Push package
-
A
delivery of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals sent from the
National Pharmaceutical Stockpile to a state undergoing an emergency
within 12 hours of federal approval of a request by the state's Governor.
PVMS --
Prophylaxis Vaccine Management System
The state-wide system used in Washington to track vaccine
distribution and use during the smallpox vaccination effort.
-
-
R
RERC -- Regional Emergency Response Coordinator
- RCW -- Revised
Code of Washington
-
The laws of Washington State.
-
- Risk and Emergency Management (Office of)
-
Department of
Health's lead office for emergency management planning.
S
SERC -- State Emergency Response Coordinato
- SNS -- Strategic National Stockpile (formerly National
Pharmaceutical Stockpile)
-
National cache of drugs, vaccines, and supplies that
can be deployed to areas struck by disasters, including bioterrorism.
-
- Surge capacity
-
Ability of institutions such as clinics, hospitals, or
public health laboratories to respond to sharply increased demand for their
services during a public health emergency.
-
- Surveillance
-
The systematic ongoing collection, collation, and
analysis of data and the timely dissemination of information to those who need
to know so that action can be taken. Surveillance is the essential feature of
epidemiological practice.
T
-
TOPOFF --
Top Officials
-
A full-scale preparedness exercise sponsored jointly by the
Departments of Justice and State.
W
- WAPHL -- Washington State Department of Health
Public Health Laboratories
-
Washington's lead bioterrorism response public health
laboratory.
WACMHC -- Washington Association of Community and Migrant
Health Centers
- WA-SECURES --
Washington State Electronic Communications and Urgent Response Exchange System
-
A secure Web portal that provides public health systems
with training materials, resources and protocols for public health emergencies.
It will be extended to hospitals, clinical laboratories, emergency management
agencies and public safety agencies. It will also be used to send rapid, and
targeted health alerts to local health entities.
-
- WEDSS --
Washington Electronic Disease Surveillance System
-
The umbrella information program that allows the
Department of Health and local health organizations to exchange health
information including, when necessary, emergency information. WEDSS encompasses
Washington's activities under the Health Alert Network (HAN) and the National
Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS, plus information technology at
the Washington State Public Health Laboratories. WEDSS projects include:
- DCD
- EDI
- EDTH
- HAN LHAP
- LIMS
- PHIMS
- WA-SECURES
WSALPHO -- Washington
State Association of Local Public Health Officials
WSDOH -- Washington
State Department of Health
WSHA -- Washington State Hospital Association
WSPHA -- Washington State Public Health
Association
Back to top
|
