Given the important services that healthcare organizations provide, responding resources should be demobilized as soon as they are no longer needed for emergency response. The process for returning them to their day-to-day function should be expedited. Some organizations, as well as elements of the HCRT, may be demobilized while other elements are still operational. Individual organizations manage their own demobilization actions, but they should inform the HCRT of their status so that situational awareness can be maintained across the Coalition.
The HCRT should define procedures for demobilizing its resources. These procedures can be listed in a checklist and included as a tool in the Healthcare Coalition’s EOP. Some examples of issues that could be included in a Coalition’s demobilization checklist include the following:
- Decision to demobilize: Guidelines for how the decision would be made and what factors should be considered (e.g., completion of response objectives) can be helpful.
- Announcement of demobilization: As the Healthcare Coalition demobilizes elements from its response organization, it is important to formally notify Coalition members and the relevant Jurisdictional Agency(s) (Tier 3).
- Transition to Healthcare Coalition baseline operations: As the HCRT Leader is demobilized, consultation and decision-making authority is transferred to the staffed Healthcare Coalition Duty Officer. The Coalition Notification Center resumes its role in baseline operations.
- Resources: HCRT demobilization procedures can initiate the rehabilitation of HCRT resources used during the emergency. This is further addressed in Section 3.7.
- Document preservation: Relevant incident-related documents for the HCRT should be archived, including ICS forms and documentation collected from external sources (Tier 1, regional Tier 2s, or Tier 3). These can be helpful for the HCRT After Action Report (AAR) process (see Chapter 6) and also serve as historical references.
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