Unified Command System
Examples
During a measles outbreak, the DOH may work with the community’s department of education. Both agencies would develop an agreed upon goal: prevent a measles epidemic. While the day care center may review vaccination records of students, the DOH may initiate an emergency vaccination clinic.
At the beginning of a severe weather event all of the involved agencies may decide that the most important goal is to safely evacuate the affected community. The DOH may be involved with working with hospital and nursing homes to ensure patient safety during evacuation, coordinating shelter operations with the American Red Cross, and addressing general public health food and water safety issues, while the transportation and police departments may ensure that the roads are clear.
For some emergencies, multiple agencies or jurisdictions need to collaborate in order to respond to the event to protect the public. When doing so under the ICS, all responding agencies work together to develop a common goal for responding to the event (this is called the Incident Action Plan, or IAP) as well as deciding how to allocate scarce resources and provide assistance to each other. When agencies work together in this way, it is referred to as working under unified command. Unified command does not mean losing or giving up agency authority, responsibility or accountability. The concept of unified command means that all involved agencies contribute to the command process by using:
- Common terminology
- Modular organization
- Integrated communications
- Unity of command
- Unified command structure
- Consolidated Incident Action Plans (IAPs)
- Manageable span of control
- Designated incident facilities
- Comprehensive resource management
- Common set of incident objectives and strategies
- Determining overall objectives
- Joint planning of operational activities while conducting integrated operations
- Maximized use of all assigned resources