The California Statewide Medical and Health Exercise Program
(SMHE), utilizing HSEEP
and aligning with PHEP and
HPP grant requirements, offers customizable exercise
templates for jurisdictions, organizations, and facilities.
Updated annually, the program provide objectives, scenarios, and
focus regions for participation in the yearly exercise.
Facilitated by CDPHi and the California Emergency Medical Service
Authority, SWMHE aligns with state-level engagement and grant
requirements, though local jurisdictions have the option to
conduct their own exercises.
The SWMHE is proposed to resume in April 2025 and annually
thereafter, aligning with the new five-year project period
starting July 1, 2024.
You can find more information and access exercise materials on
the SWMHE
Website.
This tool was was developed by the CHA Hospital
Preparedness Program to assist hospitals in development,
implementation and evaluation of their exercises.
Individual exercises are part of an Exercise and Evaluation Cycle
under the hospital’s Emergency Management Program. These
exercises may be isolated within the hospital, or part of a
larger community, or even statewide, exercise such as the
California Statewide Medical Health Exercise. It is the
intent of the checklist to provide an overview, guidance and
resources for hospitals which allows a more coordinated effort
and can be tailored to the facility.
First implemented in 2004, Cal OES’ annual state-level exercise
series has become the most comprehensive preparedness exercise
program in the country. The annual exercise series is designed to
assess emergency operations plans, policies, and procedures for
all-hazards/catastrophic incidents at the local, regional, state,
and federal levels.
ShakeOut is an annual earthquake drill and preparedness activity
that promotes earthquake preparedness and safety. Originating in
Southern California in 2008, ShakeOut has since expanded to other
regions and countries around the world.
ShakeOut drills are designed to raise awareness about earthquake
risks and encourage individuals, organizations, and communities
to take proactive measures to reduce their vulnerability to
earthquakes and their potential impact.
ShakeOut events typically occur on a specific day each year,
usually in October, with participants ranging from schools and
businesses to government agencies and households.
The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) is
a capabilities and performance-based exercise program that
provides a standardized methodology and terminology for exercise
design, development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement
planning.
The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP)
constitutes a national standard for all exercises. Through
exercises, the National Exercise Program supports organizations
to achieve objective assessments of their capabilities so that
strengths and areas for improvement are identified, corrected,
and shared as appropriate prior to a real incident. To learn more
about the HSEEP program, click on the About HSEEP tab above.
The HSEEP is maintained by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency’s National Preparedness Directorate, Department of
Homeland Security.
There are 7 types of exercises. Exercises are either discussion
based, or operations-based. Discussions-based exercises
familiarize participants with current plans, policies, agreements
and procedures, or may be used to develop new plans, policies,
agreements, and procedures. Discussion-based Exercises include
the following:
Seminar: A seminar is an informal discussion,
designed to orient participants to new or updated plans,
policies, or procedures (e.g., a seminar to review a new
Evacuation Standard Operating Procedure).
Workshop: A workshop resembles a
seminar, but is employed to build specific products, such as a
draft plan or policy (e.g., a Training and Exercise Plan
Workshop is used to develop a Multi-year Training and Exercise
Plan).
Tabletop Exercise (TTX): A tabletop exercise
involves key personnel discussing simulated scenarios in an
informal setting. TTXs can be used to assess plans, policies,
and procedures.
Games: A game is a simulation of operations
that often involves two or more teams, usually in a competitive
environment, using rules, data, and procedure designed to
depict an actual or assumed real-life situation.
Operations-based Exercises validate plans, policies, agreements
and procedures, clarify roles and responsibilities, and identify
resource gaps in an operational environment.Operations-based
exercises include the following:
Drill: A drill is a coordinated, supervised
activity usually employed to test a single, specific operation
or function within a single entity (e.g., a fire department
conducts a decontamination drill).
Functional Exercise (FE): A functional
exercise examines and/or validates the coordination, command,
and control between various multi-agency coordination centers
(e.g., emergency operation center, joint field office, etc.). A
functional exercise does not involve any “boots on the ground”
(i.e., first responders or emergency officials responding to an
incident in real time).
Full-Scale Exercises (FSE): A full-scale
exercise is a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional,
multi-discipline exercise involving functional (e.g., joint
field office, emergency operation centers, etc.) and “boots on
the ground” response (e.g., firefighters decontaminating mock
victims).
Hospitals are required to conduct drills and exercises for
accreditation and/or grant requirement(s).
Examples of these requirements include:
The HPP grant may require hospital participation in the
annual Statewide Medical Health Exercise.
The National Incident Management System Compliance for
Healthcare Objective 7 states that NIMS concepts and
principles are promoted into all organization-related training
and exercises.
The Joint Commission in EM03.01.03 requires two emergency
response exercises (at least one to include an escalating event
where the local community is unable to support the event),
and at least one to include participation in a community-wide
exercise.
Hospitals must be prepared to respond to public health
emergencies that may create a sudden demand on services. Disaster
drills allow hospitals to test response capabilities to these
emergencies in real time.
AHRQ has developed this Tool for Evaluating Core Elements of
Hospital Drills. This tool can be used by hospitals to identify
the most important strengths and weaknesses in disaster drills.
The results can be applied to training and drill planning.
Consistent with the blanket waiver request submitted by the
American Hospital Association (AHA), the Federal Communication
Commission has adopted an order which permits the use of HAM
radios during hospital disaster drills. The Commission determined
that amateur radio operators play a critical role during
disasters and that amateur radio operators should be permitted to
participate in disaster drills regardless of whether they are
employed by the entity conducting the drill.
The blanket waiver request was filed by AHA in response to The
Joint Commission’s requirement that hospitals prepare an
emergency operations plan specifying alternative forms of
communication to use during emergencies and establishing back-up
communications links, including amateur radio stations, if
primary communications systems fail.
Due to the adoption of the FCC order, the Commission dismissed
AHA’s blanket waiver as moot.
