ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition

1. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition SMORT Advisory Committee Cathy Molchan Director, Quality Assurance and Registration Alabama Center for Health Statistics Southern Regional NAPHSIS Meeting Charleston, SC March 2007

2. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition What is ESF8? Emergency Support Functions 1 - Transportation 2 - Communications 3 - Public Works 4 - Firefighting 5 - Information and Planning 6 - Mass Care 7 – Resource Support 8 – Health and Medical 9 – Search and Rescue 10 – Hazmat 11 – Food and Water 12 – Energy 13 – Military Support 14 – Public Information 15 – Volunteer and Donations 16 – Law Enforcement 17 – Animal Protection

3. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition What is the purpose of the Region IV Unified Planning Coalition? Made up of the HHS Region IV States Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee Federal Partners HHS, CDC, FEMA, HRSA, NDMS, ASTHO Assist impacted states in planning for, responding to and recovering from catastrophic events

4. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition Services Offered Identify an inventory of all health and medical assets in Region IV States Provide regional communications on the status of events in the impacted areas, assist in forecasting resource needs and develop consequence timeline In a potential or actual event of public health significance assemble all Region IV state and federal partners to develop an incident action plan (IAP)

5. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition Services Offered, cont Gather and communicate medical intelligence regarding medical facilities, medical beds, and patient movements Assist in the identification and facilitation of effective ground communication systems Provide a channel for non-impacted states to offer assistance to impacted states to reduce redundancy in the deployment of resources Provide ongoing analysis of deployed assets by states to reduce demands being placed on one state’s resources

6. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition SMORT (State Mortuary Operations Response Team) Committee One of Several Committees Responsible for Mass Fatality Management

7. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition Mass Fatality Management Operations are conducted through a unified command structure Allows agencies with different legal, geographic, and functional authorities and responsibilities to work together effectively without affecting individual agency authority, responsibility, or accountability Capability to effectively perform scene documentation The complete collection and recovery of the dead, victim’s personal effects, and items of evidence Decontamination of remains and personal effects if required Transportation, storage, documentation, and recovery of forensic and physical evidence

8. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition Mass Fatality Management,cont Determination of the nature and extent of injury Identification of the fatalities using scientific means Certification of the cause and manner of death Processing and returning of human remains and person effects of the victims to the legally authorized person(s) Interaction with and provision of legal, customary, compassionate, and culturally competent required services to the families of deceased within the context of the family assistance center All activities should be sufficiently documented for admissibility in criminal and/or civil courts

9. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition 10 Components of an Ideal SMORT Assessment Team Search and Recovery Missing Persons and Investigations Storage Logistics Victim Family Services – post and ante mortem data collection Responder and Victim Mental Health Command and Control Security Identification Morgue operations – forensics Analysis of data from morgue for identification States without one or more of these components can request assistance from the Regional Team

10. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition SMORT Advisory Committee Committee Members DHHS Region IV ESF 8 Command DHS NDMS Region IV ESF 8 Command DMORT Subject Matter Experts Search and Recovery Subject Matter Experts State ESF 8 Command State Medical Examiner November 2006 Established Education Subcommittee Established component State leads Began implementation plan

11. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition SMORT Advisory Committee Next Steps Buy In from all agencies Multi State commitment contract for recruitment and education Support for State Medical Examiners and Taskforce Appointments Implementation Plan

12. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition SMORT Advisory Committee Vital Record Issues as Identified by Group Need current contact information for each state in the event of mass fatality event Mechanism to reduce the possibility of searching for persons who are previously deceased Mechanism to eliminate the filing of duplicate death certificates for victims

13. ESF8 Region IV Unified Planning Coalition What are we doing regarding Mass Fatalities in our States? What should we be doing?