Health Department Contact Information for Incident Management Teams (IMTs)

Source:  Wildland Fire Medical and Public health Advisory Team (MPHAT)

Upon resource order for the fire incident, the IMT should

1. Locate the counties and the county health department where the fire is located
2. Visit the county health and the state health department website to locate:
   1. The COVID-19 call numbers.
   2. The COVID- 19 contact (when available).
   3. Any information about how the county health department wants employers to respond or report COVID-19 cases.
3. Before traveling to an incident call the county COVID-19 call line. You will likely leave a message or talk to an operator. Please be patient if you do not talk with a person or if your questions are not answered right away, public health authorities may be busy.
4. If you are able to talk with someone, let them know about your IMT, the fire incident, your anticipated COVID procedures. Use the information below as a guide:
   1. Your name and your team.
   2. The fire name and approximate location.
   3. The IMT COVID-19 Coordinator name and contact information (if known).
   4. Approximate and anticipated number of workers coming on site.
   5. Any MPHAT/Agency/ICT COVID-19 policies or other pertinent information.
   6. Testing policies or actions (if known) including
      1. What the IMT plans to do with symptomatic individuals, close contacts, positive cases, and testing (if known). Use the back of this document as a starting point.
   7. How to engage and any guidance from the health department about their policies such as:
      1. Does the health department want regular check-ins from the IMT? If so, at what interval, who is the point of contact, and what information do they want to receive?
      2. When a worker becomes symptomatic, does the health department want to be notified and coordinate testing and follow-up care? If not, does the health department have recommendations on who in the county can provide care and where should the worker go to obtain a test.
      3. Hospital, urgent care, and testing locations.
      4. If the IMT is using point of care ‘rapid’ testing devices, how does the fire report results and at what interval to the health department?
      5. How engaged, what is the process for, and what will the timing be for case investigation and contact tracing and outbreak investigations?
         1. What is a workplace outbreak (more than 2 cases) and when does the county want to be notified and how?
      6. Is the health department in agreement with the IMT sending asymptomatic or mildly sick personnel to their home unit (away from this county). If so, does the health department have guidance?