EMERGENCY RESPONDER HEALTH MONITORING AND SURVEILLANCE (ERHMS)

National Response Team Technical Assistance Document

All chapters, tools and appendices described below are found in the National Response Team ERHMS Technical Assistance Document

Overview

When disaster strikes, the nation depends on emergency response workers who are prepared and trained to respond effectively. To ensure that workers can meet the challenges of disasters, they must be protected from the safety and health risks inherent in the work. This document provides a recommended health monitoring and surveillance framework, referred to as the Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) system, which includes specific recommendations and tools for all phases of a response, including the pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment phase (see Figure 1 ). The intent of health monitoring and surveillance is to identify exposures and/or signs and symptoms early in the course of an emergency response in order to prevent or mitigate adverse physical and psychological outcomes and ensure workers maintain their ability to respond effectively and are not harmed in the course of response work.

Figure 1