Hospital Incident Command System Guidebook

August 20, 2014

Source: EMR-ISAC

The California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) recently released the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) 2014 Guidebook. This is its fifth edition, newly expanded to address the needs of hospitals regardless of size, location, or patient care capabilities.

The revision has added a Patient Family Assistance Branch to address patient family needs as well as an Employee Family Care Unit to assist the needs of the families of healthcare staff. In addition, new chapters addressing HICS for small and rural hospitals were added, and HICS forms were revised to match more closely with those used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The California EMSA reminds the HICS Guidebook users that it should be considered a “living document” and lessons learned will ultimately lead to an even better update. Also, they request copies of After Action Reports and presentations on the use of HICS 2014 to aid in future editions; send these to hics@emsa.ca.gov.