CDPH and EMSA Release New EOM Chapters, CDC Publishes Updated PHEP Capabilities

Last week, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) released new content for the California Public Health and Medical Emergency Operations Manual (EOM). New chapters were added to the EOM after extensive work was done by the EOM Workgroup and in consultation with subject matter experts and stakeholders. The content added includes:

• Disaster Behavioral Health
• Disaster Behavioral Health personnel resource typing tools
• BioWatch
• Risk Communication
• Biological Hazards
• Drinking Water

On the federal level, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released updated Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Capabilities in response to national lessons learned from various public health emergencies, updated public health preparedness science, revised guidance and resources, among other changes. Last week, CDPH shared the updated capabilities document with all local PHEP coordinators as CDPH continues to review the update.