Summary report of systematic reviews for public health emergency operations centres
Plans and procedures; communication technology and infrastructure: minimum datasets and standards; training and exercises
Overview
A public health emergency operations centre (PHEOC) exists to coordinate information and resources in order to manage responses to public health events or emergencies.
Emergency operations centres (EOCs) are used in a variety of emergencies, including natural disasters; foodborne disease outbreaks; radio-nuclear events; bioterrorism; chemical incidents; mass gatherings; blackouts; humanitarian emergencies; and disease outbreaks or pandemics. They are employed at a variety of jurisdictional levels, and range from field EOCs to local, regional, national or international EOCs. Effective communication and coordination within and between EOCs and response agencies is critical to the successful management of an emergency.
The structure and function of EOCs varies across countries and organisations; they have different capacities and resources, and use different staff, terminologies, procedures and tools. These variations pose significant challenges to the interoperability that is essential to effective coordination between EOCs and responding agencies.