Jacksonville, Florida is a beautiful city coupled with amazing sandy beaches. A lot has happened over the years thus a lot of vices have cropped up. The rate of crime in Jacksonville is shooting up as the years go by. This is because the city is steadily developing thus terror gangs are cropping up everywhere (Fond, et al., 2015). Despite all that, Jacksonville is considered a beautiful place to reside in. the health care system is superb in that it caters for everyone’s need. Equipped with the state of the art technology, the health departments there are capable of handling almost any health cases brought to them. Such is the kind of service Jacksonville offers its residents. This compilation takes a look a department of Health in Duval County (DOH-Duval) structure, response capabilities, and surveillance tools as well as role in emergency management.
Florida department of health in Duval County (DOH-Duval) is an affiliate of (SFDH) State of Florida Department of health. The health agency provides services to Jackson, Florida residents, a population of approximately 800,000. Putting into consideration such a huge population, the health agency is currently staffed with 575 employees and runs at a budget of $43 million. The growth of DOH-Duval over the years has been due to had work coupled with determination from the staff members as well as community partners. A few examples of DOH-Duval established partners include, UF Health Jacksonville, University of North Florida College of Health, and Jacksonville Children’s Commission, University of Florida among others. DOH-Duval has done a stupendous job in upgrading its health centre’s image. The health department has conducted an expansion into more spacious as well as state-of-the-art facilities situated all over Jacksonville (Fond, et al., 2015). This was brought about by the need to effectively address personal as well as environmental health issues. DOH-Duval is fully committed to improving the health and living standards of residents in Jacksonville, Florida. This is because it has taken the initiative to include the members of the community in Jacksonville to various capacities for instance advisory councils and focus groups. The health agency aims at being the leader in terms of providing proper health care services as well as meeting the needs of Jacksonville residents.
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As health centres continue to expand and provide the much given care, they increasingly become more vulnerable to potential security threats. Given the mandate of the health care guidelines in regards to security. It is the health centre’s decision on the kind of tools they will acquire in order to curb insecurity. The first and most important responsibility of any health care centre is to ensure that it is safe and receiving quality care. The security team, training, as well as education of their personnel is aimed at providing support to the mission of the health care centre, which is to save lives. Each health care centre has the privilege of utilising technology to create a safe atmosphere for persons in the centre. Some of these components include: access control, staff management, intrusion detection, patient management, panic alarms, visitor management, infant tagging, video surveillance and Emergency communications. (Nibbelink, 2012)
Such are the tools that DOH-Duval has employed in ensuring that its patients as well as working staff are fully protected 24/7. Such an atmosphere provides a sense of calmness that is very much needed in a health centre. “ If each of these technology systems is purchased, administered, and maintained on a separate and individual basis, it causes the hospital to incur undue expenses and operational inefficiencies. However, when they are part of an integrated, technology master plan, the healthcare organization can improve security and operational efficiencies, while also reducing the associated cost” (Nibbelink, 2012).
The response capabilities of DOH-Duval are up to par. The health agency is well equipped with latest technologies better suited for handling emergency cases. The health centre is very much actively involved responding and ensuring the public needs are met in times of an emergency (Al Ameen et al., 2012). The first priority of the DOH-Duval is ensuring that essential medical services are fully maintained following a crisis. This is coupled by provision of required assistance to the population affected.
Bioterrorism is the deliberate use of bacteria as well as viruses to cause death among others (Hutwagner, et al., 2003). Since the previous attacks took place a few years back, the nation has put into place measures that will help curb the vice, it has created awareness as well as prepared and equipped the health centers with necessary tools to handle such a disaster. DOH-Duval has prepared the residents of Jacksonville on what to do in case of such a disaster. These steps include
Planning
The residents should ensure they create an emergency plan for their respective families and ensure they practice it. One should be very conversant with Emergency procedures for places like, churches, workplace, schools, or any other place that one frequents (Grundmann, 2014).
Preparing
Residents should put together disaster supply kits readily available in case of an attack. Residents should take it upon themselves to read and understand all about bioterrorism, this will help them know when a real treat is eminent. Residents are encouraged to live and enjoy life to the fullest.
Participate
Given that the first response in relation to a disaster of any form must be local, DOH-Duval has taken upon itself to ensure they are well prepared to fully take care of the residents of Jacksonville through 1 to 2 weeks after an attack as they wait for external assistance. DOH-Duval urges individuals to volunteer with agencies such as the Salvation Army or the American Red Cross (Grundmann, 2014). Jacksonville resident are also encouraged to form as well as join groups such as Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS), Neighborhood Watch and Citizen Emergency Response Team. Getting involved in preparedness efforts at work is greatly advised. Learning First Aid and crucial can come in handy in case of an attack
Emergency
DOH-Duval encourages those who feel they might have been exposed to a chemical substance or if they believe a biological attack might be eminent should immediately contact local authorities as well as local health departments (Grundmann, 2014).
In many instances, DOH-Duval serves as the lead In terms of providing for disaster stricken population within Florida. This is because it has the manpower as well as the resources to handle certain disasters that are deemed minor. In cases such as bioterrorism, DOH-Duval can fully handle the containment of the outbreak but will eventually need outside assistance in eradicating the threat. In this case the health department will play the role of a support agent.
In conclusion, health care departments have become more and more sophisticated in terms of providing quality services as well as ensuring that both the patient and staff are fully comfortable as well as secure. Jacksonville is considered to be among the best cities that offer unique health services couple with proper treatment. The city has been credited with providing its resident with proper care and hospitality whenever they visit the health centers this just goes to show how much these health centers have invested in order to provide such quality. The participation of community members cannot be left behind because without their output, the health centers could not have been where they are today. The have contributed a lot to the creation of a better health system.
References
Nibbelink, S. (2012). Hospitals Meet Security Challenges with Integrated Security and Facility Solutions . Retrieved from http://www.schneider-electric.us/documents/customers/healthcare/resource-library/hospitals-meet-security-challenges-wp.pdf
Hutwagner, M. L., Thompson, M. W., Seeman, G. M., & Treadwell, T. (2003). The bioterrorism preparedness and response early aberration reporting system (EARS). Journal of Urban Health , 80 (1), i89-i96.
Al Ameen, M., Liu, J., & Kwak, K. (2012). Security and privacy issues in wireless sensor networks for healthcare applications. Journal of medical systems , 36 (1), 93-101.
Grundmann, O. (2014). The current state of bioterrorist attack surveillance and preparedness in the US. Risk management and healthcare policy , 7 , 177.
Fond, M., Lindland, E., Morgan, P., Simon, A., & Kendall-Taylor, N. (2015). All Aboard. Retrieved from http://partnershipforchildhealth.org/Posts/All_Aboard_Metaphor_Report-Final.pdf
