Training tabletop exercises

Public Health - Seattle & King County (Public Health) convened a series of Pandemic Influenza exercises in 2006, accomplishing one of the most significant efforts to identify problems, explore solutions and test assumptions in Pandemic Influenza planning conducted to date.

• Two tabletop exercises focused on Continuity of Operations and Government (COOP/COG) issues and concerns for mayors and city departments were conducted in suburban cities within King County.
  
  
• One tabletop exercise focused on Communicable Disease Surveillance and linkages between Public Health and key medical providers across the healthcare system.
  
  
• One functional exercise focused on the Public Information Call Center function for Public Health, involving live Public Health call-takers and real-time simulated calls made by volunteer 911-dispatch and fire personnel.
  
  
• One tabletop exercise focused on Leadership and Decision Making challenges and involved elected officials, emergency managers, health system representatives, and select private sector and community stakeholders in discussion of the impact of pandemic influenza upon the community.
  
  
• One tabletop exercise focused on Health System Capacity and Resources concerns across the 39 member hospital system in King County, addressing capacity and resources challenges and identifying potential solutions to be explored.

Design Team Members included representatives from Public Health, the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, the City of Seattle, and the Healthcare Coalition, which is a network of healthcare organizations and providers in King County collaborating to coordinate and strengthen a regional healthcare response to all hazards.

Participants were drawn from a broad array of governmental agencies, private-sector corporations and community organizations.

The After Action Reports are linked, and include all exercise materials.

For more information regarding these documents or Public Health's exercise program, please contact:

Whitney Taylor
Training and Exercise Program Manager
Public Health - Seattle & King County
401 5th Ave, Suite 1300
Seattle, WA 98104
Whitney.Taylor@kingcounty.gov
206-263-8730

• City Government Pandemic Flu Tabletop Exercise
• Communicable Disease Surveillance, Tabletop Exercise
• Health System Surge and Resource Management, Tabletop Exercise
• Leadership/Decision Making, Tabletop Exercise
• Public Information Call Center, Functional Exercise