8.

1 Roles and tasks associated with the functional sections

8.4.1. Management staff
The management staff is responsible for:

 Overall operation of the PHEOC

 Determining coordination of response activities and partners
 Liaison with assisting agencies (i.e. those providing their own tactical resources) and
cooperating agencies (those providing external support)
 Public communication
 The safety of responders
 Situation reporting to senior organizational leadership and getting direction from senior
leadership
 Resource mobilization.
 Complex public health emergency management requires consistency and continuity of
action and effort among all partners. To that end the management section should
promote:
 Understanding of the missions, mandates, capabilities and capacities of participating
agencies
 Understanding of the contextual factors of an event for a common operating picture
 Creation of common outcome measures
 A common vision, goals, and objectives
 Coordination of actions.
Essential roles of the management staff include those of incident manager, PHEOC facility manager, and
public communication officer. These are detailed below.

Incident manager

The responsible agency will appoint an Incident Manager (sometimes called a coordinator, or director) to
be in charge of the management section. A public communication officer, a risk manager, a safety officer
and liaison officers from cooperating agencies can be positioned to provide direct support to the incident
manager. At the site level, the person responsible for the management function is often called the
‘incident commander’.

EOC facility manager

The responsible agency will also appoint a PHEOC facility manager (as distinct from the incident
manager).

The facility manager is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the PHEOC, ensuring that all of
its functionality, systems, hardware, software and staff support tools are well-maintained and operational
when needed, and that designated personnel have access to training to support their effectiveness. A
larger, permanent facility will usually have a team of technical personnel working with the PHEOC
facility manager and providing management and support for information systems, telecommunications,
geospatial information systems (GIS) and security.

Public communication officer

Public communication is critical in public health emergency management. The public communication
officer is responsible for:

 Interaction with a variety of audiences and media

 Advocacy (supporting risk awareness and social mobilization)
 Developing communication products.

8.4.2. Planning section

The planning section is responsible for:

 Aggregating and processing data

 Developing and communicating operational information
 Predicting the probable evolution of events
 Developing objectives, strategies and action plans
 Identifying the technical expertise that is needed.
At site level, much of the planning function is concerned with the assignment of available human and
material resources to achieve maximum effect. At an off-site support PHEOC, planning activities tend to
be concerned with different issues, such as mapping of capacities and functionality of all health resources,
and tasking and deployment of newly acquired resources in order to contain the event.

Responsibility for analysis of data during epidemiological investigations can be placed with the planning
or operations sections, in order to develop operational objectives for responders and maintain situational
awareness within the PHEOC.
 8.4.3. Operations section
The operations section is responsible for using resources to respond directly to the event. At a site-support
PHEOC level, the operations function is responsible for coordination and technical guidance of all
response operations, and for implementing an existing or improvised response plan to support the site-
level response.

At site level, the operations function is all about direct response activities, such as:

 Vaccination
 Contact tracing
 Triage
 Treating and transporting sick/injured/deceased people
 Decontaminating people and premises
 Conducting disease surveillance and collecting epidemiological data
 Establishing emergency clinics and/or restoring functionality of damaged health
infrastructure
 Other public health interventions
 Scaling up community outreach for health promotion and case management.
Response activities vary depending on the type, scale and impact of an event—as does the sub-structure
of the operations section.

8.4.4. Logistics section

The logistics section is responsible for the acquisition, tracking, storage, staging, maintenance and
disposition of the tactical and operational resources required to respond to the event. These may include:

 Facilities
 Services (telecommunications equipment, furniture, food services, security, responder
support, etc.)
 Monitoring food and water supplies;
 Disposal of solid, liquid and hazardous waste;
 Support personnel (information technology, clerical staff, ground transportation, etc.)
 Equipment (computers, radios, vehicles, personal protection equipment, etc.)
 Surge personnel
 Transportation and disposal services (patient transport, destruction of contaminated
materials, removal and management of deceased persons).
 These services may also be provided by the operations section.

8.4.5. Finance and administration section

The finance and administration section is responsible for all financial activities and administrative tasks,
which may include but are not limited to:

 Cash flow management

 Tracking of material and human resource costs
 Budget preparation and monitoring
 Production and maintenance of administrative records
 Processing of compensation claims
 Preparation of procurement contracts
 Incentive and insurance payments.
The finance and administration section chief should be routinely present and available in the PHEOC to
facilitate operations. Space within the PHEOC should be provided for administrative record keepers.
Additional finance and administration personnel may be located outside the PHEOC.

1.1. Roles and responsibilities

Incident Manager  Responsible for all aspects of the outbreak response; including developing event objectives,
managing all operations, application of resources as well as responsibility for all persons
involved
 sets priorities and defines the organization of the response teams
 Responsible for the overall incident action plan
 Oversees all operations of the outbreak response
 Establish the appropriate staffing level for the IMS and continuously monitors operational
effectiveness of the response
 Ensure availability of end of PHE after action report
 Responsible for recommending deactivation and de-escalation of the PHEOC when the
outbreak is declared over
Deputy Incident  Assume the responsibility of Incident Manager when needed
Manager  Perform specific tasks as requested by the Incident Manager
 Implement directives from senior managers
Public information  Interface with the public, media, other agencies, and stakeholders to provide response
officer related information and updates based on changes in the status of the incident or planned
event
 Share updates: SITREPs to partners
 Responsible for development of a public information and communication products
 Control and coordinate the release of information to the media
 Prepare press releases and conferences
 Develop and release information about the response to the news media, to the response
personnel, and to other appropriate agencies and organizations
 Obtain media information that may be useful to incident planning
 Provide accurate and timely status reports to the Incident Manager and PHEOC members
 Provide accurate information to the media on a timely basis
 Perform a key public information - monitoring role, such as implementing measures for
rumor control
 Develop and distribute community information releases through local and national medial
such as TV, radio, or newspaper, and the use of Social Media networks

partner Liaison  Coordinate with other agencies in the PHEOC that are normally not part of the PHEOC
officer staff, such as partners, private and governmental sector or volunteer organizations to make
sure they are incorporated into PHEOC operations as appropriate
 Partner liaison officer from other agencies will be sitting within the PHEOC

TF Members  Bullet some tasks: coming up with updated info from regions, share info or decisions of the
PHEOC, make-sure participation / engagement of other sectors, provide technical advise on
emergency management, support the overall coordination
 TF member liaison the TF (create separate row and take this function)Specific roles and
responsibilities
PHEOC Manager  Supports all PHEOC operations and ensures that the facility and resources required
for PHEOC support are provided
 This position works closely with the Policy Group and ensures that proper
emergency and disaster declarations are enacted and documented
 Ensure PHEOC plans and procedures and monitor implementation
 Staff the PHEOC in collaboration with the Incident Manager
 Responsible for the day to day operation of the PHEOC
 Ensures proper management of information and documentation
 Ensures timely dissemination of the response information
Planning Section  Receive, compile, evaluate, and analyze all outbreak information and providing updated
Chief status reports to PHEOC management and field operations
 Develop and communicate operational information
 Predict the probable evolution of events
 Develop objectives, strategies and action plans
 Keep records and ensure proper documentation of the response
  Identify inaccuracies and conflicting reports
 Coordinate with technical areas (sub-committees) and Logistics to capture and centralize
resource status information
 Prepare and maintain resource status boards, and display current status and location of
tactical resources
 Identifying the technical expertise that is needed during the response
Logistics Section  Provide logistics support to the PHEOC
Chief  Estimate the needs of response equipment, supplies, transport and communication
equipment
 Manage the procurement of supplies and essential response equipment, communications
systems
 Support FMOH on stock management, inventory, replenishment and stock rotation
 Develop distribution plan in collaboration with partners for all supplies and equipment from
central level to the points of use
 Support PHEOC with prerequisite administrative support and finance resource management
to ensure implementation of field activity
Administrative  Ensure office administration and support
officer  Handle all routine correspondence related to the operation
 Monitor and maintain office supplies
 Ensure that printers, copiers and faxes are functional and stocked with paper
 Ensure that all memos, letters and other documents related to the outbreaks are handled
effectively, rapidly anddisseminated accordingly
 Prepare and maintain a rotation plan for administrative staff beyond normal hours in line
with the SOPs
 Update arrival and departure dates of deployment personnel
Finance officer  Mobilize and manage financial resources in collaboration with HQ
 Organize rapid transfer of funds if required
 Support funding proposals
 Organize petty cash for staff deployed to the field (for emergency procurement in the field
and /or cash advance on perdiem) if needed
 Monitor expenditure for the response, including cash flows, and work with partners on cost-
sharing arrangements
 Clear all financial documents
Surveillance Unit  Submit the plan and request funds
 Plan for the activities, assign responsibilities and implement
 Prepare protocols for surveillance at community and health centers
 Ensure that active case finding and contact tracing is done well at both National and
regional levels
 Prepare a standard protocol for contact tracing
 Follow up all contacts and ensure that a database for all the contacts is in place
 Ensure core capacity for surveillance and response is well established at all community,
health facilities and ports of entry
  Oversee capacity building for health workers on surveillance and response
 Work with GIS to map key epidemiological parameters
 Collate, analyze, interpret and report summary data (e.g. daily counts of cases/deaths)
 Generate descriptive epidemiology and data visualization
 Manage the implementation within the approved budget
 Manage outbreak data: analyses data regularly for trends and establishes transmission
chains
 Supervise, monitor and evaluate implementation at national and regional levels
 Prepare and submit cumulative and progress implementation report to the task force
 Closely link with infection control and social mobilization groups
Data management /  Collect, collate epidemiological data from regions
GIS Unit  Manage database including content, structure, file location, backup system
 Work with surveillance and epidemiology to map and visualize data
 incorporate all relevant data to produce map products, statistical data for reports and/or
analysis
Laboratory  Prepare guidelines, policies and manual
diagnostic officer  Ensure all laboratories provides services consistently and accurately
 Provide supportive supervision to laboratories
 Provide advice to case management on treatment guidelines
 Ensure laboratories have supplies
Laboratory NHL  Provide technical assistance on testing referral samples
 Provide technical trainings (in service trainings) to lab personnel in the country
 Conduct supportive supervision to laboratories
 Mentor laboratories in Microbiology practices and Quality Management system
 Provide technical advice on sample management (sample transportation)
 Confirm the outbreak
 Link the confirmed cases with epidemiology
 Test water samples brought for surveillance.
 Professionally and effectively perform referral laboratory testing services to produce
accurate, reliable, timely and precise results
Case management  Conduct assessment, care coordination, evaluation, and advocacy for services to meet the
impacted populations health needs during a disease outbreak.
 Acquire and provide to the other subcommittees and the Task Force detailed information
regarding the impacted population to establish an intervention and response plan
 Work with the community health officers in impacted areas to assist in the development,
and implementation of response actions; assure that services provided are specified in the
treatment plan(s) and monitor progress toward treatment goals
 Regularly attend the coordination and the Task Force meetings to provide updates and
exchange pertinent information
 Review and advice on the requests from regions before processing them for support
Social mobilization  Monitor implementation of social mobilization and health education activities
 Develop or Revise IEC materials to be used at field level
  Ensure provision of training to community health workers
 Conduct house to house awareness on the disease to reduce denial and provide information
to help prevent the spread of disease within the community
 Search for victims and refer to appropriate health care facilities for treatment
 Spearhead the distribution of response supplies, ORS, etc. at the community level
 Develop and implement a communications plan to support response activities
 Develop and periodically update appropriate “action points” concerning the response for
dissemination to all appropriate policy makers
IT officer  Ensure PHEOC hardware and software systems are operational and maintained
 Ensure security of the PHEOC IT system
 Provide access, response personnel, to relevant PHEOC information
Human resource  Regularly assess and identify the human resource needs for the response in liaison with
officer function leaders
 Prepare human resource plan and regularly update and monitor
 Send requests to relevant partners for support
 Facilitate recruitment of local experts and organize administrative arrangements
 Regularly update the deployment tracking database