Emergency Preparedness

Capabilities to Investigate and Identify Health Threats

Public Health Laboratory Testing

The Tennessee Department of Health State Public Health Lab conducts laboratory testing and report results, enhances laboratory communications and coordination, and supports training and outreach.

Public Health Surveillance and Epidemiological Investigation

Public health surveillance and epidemiological investigation is the ability to create, maintain, support, and strengthen routine surveillance and detection systems and epidemiological investigation processes. It also includes the ability to expand these systems and processes in response to incidents of public health significance.

One tool in the public health surveillance toolbox is Syndromic surveillance is an important tool in public health surveillance. An example is TDH's 2021 Syndromic Surveillance summary which provides about this system and how we put it to use in Tennessee.

Capabilities to Prepare for and Recover from Emergencies

Community Resilience focuses on enhancing the day-to-day health and wellbeing of communities to reduce harm from disasters. Communities are increasingly complex, and so are the challenges they face. Human-caused and natural disasters are more frequent and costly. Factors like climate change can bring disaster related risks to greater numbers of people. Addressing these threats calls for an approach that combines what we know about preparing for disasters with actions that strengthen communities every day.

Community Preparedness

• Defines at-risk individuals as people with access and functional needs that may disproportionately impacted by an incident, and provides parameters to identify those populations
  
• Highlights Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements in jurisdictional public health preparedness and response plans
  
• Accentuates the importance of community partnerships, including tribes and native-serving organizations in public health preparedness and response activities
  
• Promotes integration of community partners to support restoration of community networks and social connectedness to improve community resilience

Community Recovery

• Highlights the need to define the jurisdictional public health agency recovery lead and support role
• Supports the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF)
  
• Promotes integration of community partners to support community recovery and restoration
  
• Emphasizes engagement of community partners to access hard-to-reach populations to ensure inclusive communications that meet the needs of the whole community

Tennessee Disaster Support Network

The Tennessee Disaster Support Network (TDSN) assists Tennessee communities in meeting their needs before, during, and after a disaster. While TDH works to ensure all Tennessee citizens are prepared to respond to a wide range of emergencies, individuals with special needs may be disproportionately affected by disasters. To close this gap, the TDSN was designed to specifically reach out to populations that have unique needs, and the agencies that serve them.

Contact the  Tennessee Emergency Preparedness Program at 615.741.7247 or EP.Response@tn.gov.

Network Partners 

American Red Cross 1.800.RED.CROSS (1.800.733.2767)
Disability and Law Advocacy Center of Tennessee 1.800.342.1660
Tennessee Aging and Disability Resource Connection 615.741.2056
Tennessee Disability Pathfinder 1.800.640.4636
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) 615.741.0001
2-1-1 Tennessee Dial 2-1-1 for the call center in your area

During a Disaster

Recovery Resources

Resources for Providers

Local & Regional Resources

Capabilities to Get Medicines and Supplies Where They are Needed

Countermeasures and Mitigation involves dispensing and administration assistance to targeted population(s) to prevent, mitigate, or treat the adverse health effects of a public health incident. This capability focuses on dispensing and administering medical countermeasures, such as vaccines, devices, antiviral drugs, antibiotics, and antitoxins. 

Medical Countern measure Dispensing and Administration

• Revises the Capability 8 title, definition, and content to account for both the dispensing and the administration of medical countermeasures, such as vaccines, antidotes, and antitoxins
• Adds content and resources to account for potential radiological or nuclear exposure
  
• Broadens the network of dispensing and administration sites to include pharmacies and other locations

Medical Material Management & Distribution

• Broadens the cold chain management guidance to include all aspects of storage and handling
• Expands recovery activities to incorporate proper handling and disposal of infectious, hazardous, or contaminated materiel and waste
  
• Accounts for security and inventory management tasks that occur throughout the entire distribution process

Non - pharmaceutical Interventions

• Focuses on collaboration by expanding suggested partners for implementing non - pharmaceutical interventions
• Supports establishment of community reception center processes to enhance ability to respond to radiological and nuclear threats
  
• Highlights management of mass gatherings (delay and cancel) based on all-hazards scenarios

Responder Safety & Health

• Incorporates the need to securely manage responder data
• Improves responder on-site management, tracking, in-processing, and out-processing
  
• Reprioritizes hierarchy of control and promotes the alignment of responder safety and health control measures, for example, personal protective equipment, with jurisdictional risk assessment findings

Strategic National Stockpile

The Emergency Preparedness program distributes medicine and medical supplies in the event of a disaster. These items often come from the Strategic National Stockpile, a supply of emergency items. The SNS supplies antibiotics, vaccines, antitoxins, chemical antidotes and medical/surgical items. SNS materials are designed to supplement and re-supply state and local public health resources, as well as other health care agencies in the event of a national emergency. The EP program continues to receive high ratings from the CDC for its level of preparedness to receive the SNS during an act of bioterrorism or a mass casualty event.

Capabilities to Coordinate an Effective Response

Incident Management collaborates government and nongovernment organizations and the private sector to work together to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from incidents. The National Incident Management system provides stakeholders across the whole community with the shared vocabulary, systems, and processes to successfully deliver the capabilities describe in the National Preparedness System. NIMS defines operational systems that guide how personnel work together during incidents.

Emergency Operations Coordination

• Distinguishes the need to identify and clarify the jurisdictional Emergency Support Function #8 (ESF #8) response role based on incident type and characteristics
• Incorporates the National Health Security Strategy and Crisis Standards of Care for public health activation
  
• Emphasizes the importance of supporting development of mission ready-packages for mutual aid and understanding the Emergency Management Assistance Compact

Deployable Resources

Crisis Standard of Care Plan

Capabilities to Make Sure People Have Information to Take Action

TDH maintains multiple emergency management and response systems supporting its capability to respond to public health or medical emergencies affecting the state. Information for systems currently in use can be accessed below. TDH EP maintains and utilizes the Tennessee Emergency Medical Awareness, Response and Resources systems (TEMARR) to provide community wide situational awareness and ensure secure electronic data exchange among public health partners’ computer systems. TEMARR systems include the Tennessee Health Alert Network, the Healthcare Resource Tracking System, the Tennessee Volunteer Mobilizer, and the Tennessee Countermeasure Response Network. Eight Regional Medical Communication Centers serve as a statewide medical communication system.

Click to Complete a TEMARR Customer Service Request

Emergency Public Information & Warning

• Promotes the need to leverage social media platforms for issuing emergency public information and warnings
  
• Clarifies conditions for establishing a virtual Joint Information Center and Joint Information System
  
• Includes content to identify and reach populations at risk to be disproportionately impacted by incidents and those with limited access to public information messages

Information Sharing

• Increases alignment to public health surveillance and data strategies
• Emphasizes the need to implement data security and cybersecurity
  
• Emphasizes the need to decrease reporting time and increase collaboration by expanding use of electronic information systems, such as electronic death registration, electronic laboratory reporting, and syndromic surveillance systems

TEMARR Links

Capabilities to Expand Medical Services to Handle Large Events

Medical surge is the ability to expand care capabilities and to provide medical evaluation and care to the injured or ill during events, natural or man-made, that cause health care facilitates to exceed the limits of their normal medical capacity capabilities in response to a great increase in demand. Large events require us to expand and change medical services available to meet the needs of the public. Surge Management works to increase the surge capacity of healthcare systems. Emergency Preparedness sustains all-hazards electronic and communication response tools needed by healthcare providers for regional and statewide disasters.

Facility Management

• The public health agency role in fatality management and describes potential fatality management lead, advisory, and support roles
• Aligns the fatality management definition to the existing federal definition as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS), Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team
  
• Updates resources to improve coordination, accuracy, and timeliness of electronic mortality reporting

Mass Care

• Incorporates content for accommodating individuals with functional and access needs within general population shelters
• Includes considerations for registration of individuals requiring decontamination or medical tracking in the event of an environmental health incident
  
• Coordinated content with HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s (ASPR) Health Care Preparedness and Response Capabilities

Medical Surge

• Emphasizes the need to define public health agency lead and support roles within medical surge operations
• Eliminates use of the term “HAvBED” because the term is no longer promoted by the Hospital Preparedness Program and focuses instead on “situational awareness” and “healthcare systems tracking” as an overarching theme
  
• Emphasizes the need to identify and clarify the jurisdictional ESF #8 response role in medical surge operations based on jurisdictional role and incident characteristics

Volunteer Management

• Addresses the need to monitor volunteer safety, risks, and actions during and after an incident
• Strengthens and clarifies volunteer eligibility considerations, such as medical, physical, and emotional health, during the volunteer selection process
  
• Promotes use of Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance

Serve Your Community in Times of Need - Become a Medical Reserve Corps Volunteer

Healthcare Coalitions

In Tennessee, much of the work in Surge Management occurs through our eight Healthcare Coalitions. Healthcare Coalitions are collaborative networks of healthcare organizations and their respective public and private sector partners that assist with preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities related to healthcare organization disaster operations.

Tennessee's Healthcare Coalitions are aligned with eight Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Regions. These coalitions work on planning, organizing, equipping, training, exercising and evaluation of healthcare system preparedness in their respective regions.

Regional Healthcare Coordinator
Supports and advises the Healthcare Coalitions on meeting the Healthcare Preparedness and Response Capabilities in the four base capabilities of:
  1. Foundation for Health Care and Medical Readiness
  2. Health Care and Medical Response Coordination
  3. Continuity of Health Care Service Delivery
  4. Medical Surge

Vulnerable Populations Coordinator
The Vulnerable Populations Coordinators work within the respective Healthcare Coalition (HCC) to coordinate programmatic outreach with organizations serving client populations that are likely to be disproportionately impacted before, during, and after a disaster or public health emergency. VPCs work to address these disparities through identified projects and programs.

Tennessee Healthcare Coalitions by Region

Surge Management Resources

Emergency Preparedness Dashboards

Tennessee Healthcare Coalitions Hazards & Vulnerabilities

Healthcare Facilities Available by Bed Type

Key Emergency Preparedness Documents