Effective community emergency response requires seamless integration between the public and private sectors. Private healthcare institutions (non-profit and for-profit) and providers comprise the vast majority of our nation’s healthcare assets. Local, state, and federal governments rely on the private healthcare sector to provide essential services during any emergency event.
Coordination between the public and private sector has historically been a challenge. In most communities public sector officials have no formalized forum to work with healthcare executives and provider-leaders on disaster preparedness issues. Operationally, the public sector has limited information about the capacity and capability of the private healthcare sector to respond to an emergency. Likewise, the healthcare sector is frequently the last to know about significant public safety events.
MESH is a unique public-private partnership that connects public sector officials to healthcare leadership. Through shared governance, private sector leaders have the ability to help shape disaster response policies and protocols – ensuring that healthcare leaders have a voice in shaping an effective response.
MESH serves as the Medical Multi-Agency Coordinating Center (Medical MACC) for Marion County, providing a critical operational link between Marion County healthcare facilities, and the senior leadership at the Marion County Health Department, the City of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Division of Homeland Security. MESH provides healthcare intelligence fusion services to the emergency management community by gathering, analyzing, and reporting on intelligence gathered from throughout the healthcare sector. Leveraging our work with hospitals and providers, MESH capitalizes on relationships with institutions and providers to provide up to date information to emergency managers, public health officials, and city executives.
In addition to providing intelligence from the healthcare sector to public sector officials, MESH provides just-in-time information and intelligence to the private healthcare sector about ongoing events and known risks in the community. For example, through technology programs such as EMResource, MESH provides the entire healthcare community with information about hospital diversion status in real time.
MESH also provides clinical and decision support, and ESF-8 integration services to healthcare providers and institutions in an emergency. Coalition healthcare institutions and providers receive the benefit of dedicated staff at the Marion County Medical MACC to support them with information and coordination through an event.
In any emergency event, quality information is critical. MESH links the public and private sectors together through our healthcare intelligence service, providing seamless information flow and support during an event.
