6 Colo. Code Regs. § 1009-5 Regulation 1

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 11, June 10, 2024

Regulation Regulation 1 - Preparations by Local Public Health Agencies for an Emergency Epidemic

1. Each local public health agency in this state subject to Section 25-1-501 et seq. and Section 25-1-108 et seq., C.R.S., is required to maintain an up-to-date notification list for an emergency epidemic. The list shall include at a minimum general or critical access hospitals, regional emergency medical and trauma advisory councils, rural health clinics or federally qualified health centers, and the local emergency management agencies within the jurisdiction of the local public health agency. Each local public health agency is required at least once per year:

(A) to confirm the notification list is accurate and up to date, and

(B) to conduct a notification test or real incident communications by a broadcast fax or another communications method for rapid notification.

2. Each local public health agency in this state subject to Section 25-1-501 et seq., C.R.S., is required to sign a uniform mutual aid agreement with all other local public health agencies subject to Section 25-1-501 et seq., C.R.S., that obligates the agency to render aid during an emergency epidemic unless the agency needs to withhold resources necessary to provide reasonable protection for its own jurisdiction. The agreement must be reviewed by the participating agencies at least every 5 years.

3. Each local public health agency subject to Section 25-1-501 et seq., C.R.S., shall maintain an agency response plan and associated Emergency Support Function #8 annex or the health and medical annex to the local emergency operations plan that mirrors the National Response Framework. The agency will implement the response plan and annex when the governor declares a disaster emergency that is the result of an occurrence or imminent threat of an emergency epidemic. The plan, and associated annex, shall be reviewed and updated as needed but at least every three years, and submitted at least every 3 years to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), and local board of health. In addition, the local public health agency shall ensure that a copy of the plan(s) and associated annex are reviewed with and made available to its jurisdiction's local offices of emergency management, to all general or critical access hospitals, to rural health clinics or federally qualified health centers, and to all regional emergency medical and trauma services advisory councils (RETACs). The plan shall address the following areas:

A) Organization and assignment of employees of the agency to work on controlling the emergency epidemic using the National Incident Management System;

B) Having sufficient supplies, training for staff using personal protective equipment, and a process for the provision of personal protective equipment to employees who are assigned to work in areas where they may be exposed to ill and contagious persons or to infectious agents and waste. Personal protective equipment shall, at a minimum, be the equipment and supplies used to achieve standard precautions against bacterial and viral infections;

C) Procurement, storage and distribution of at least a three-day supply of an antibiotic as determined by CDPHE, that is effective against category A bacterial agents to be used as prophylaxis for all employees immediately responding. The plan shall include procurement of another antibiotic for a small number of employees who may be unable to take the antibiotic of first choice;

D) An emergency, after-hours call-down list of persons who may be needed to organize and respond to an emergency epidemic; such list shall include persons with experience and training in communicable disease epidemiology;

E) Creation of an operations center within the agency or participation in a local emergency operations center for the purpose of (i) centralizing telephone, radio, and other electronic communications; (ii) compiling surveillance data; (iii) maintaining a log of operations, decisions, resources, and orders necessary to control the epidemic; (iv) responding to executive orders of the governor regarding the emergency epidemic; (v) managing mass dispensing and vaccination activities;(vi) monitoring the situation, including infection control, in each general and critical access hospital within the agency's jurisdiction, doing this on-site as necessary and with assistance from CDPHE as appropriate; (vii) assessment and management of infection control in the community outside of the hospital; (viii) assessment and management, in coordination with general and critical access hospitals and the county coroner, of the disposal of human corpses in accordance with Emergency Support Function #8, and; (ix) management and dispensing of medical countermeasures to the public;

F) Organization, receipt, staffing, security, and logistics of the distribution and delivery of antibiotics, antiviral medications, vaccines, or other medical countermeasures delivered from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) needed in an emergency epidemic following the provisions of Emergency Support Function #8;

G) Identification of a public information officer who will assure sufficient coordination and personnel for multiple operational periods for providing information to the citizens of their jurisdiction about how to protect themselves, what actions are being taken to control the epidemic, and when the epidemic is over, and;

H) Implementation of a back-up communications system, such as 800 megahertz radios or amateur radio emergency services, that will be used for communication if and when telephone communications are disabled or not functioning.

4. Each local public health agency shall conduct at least one exercise of its plan every three years. If the agency activates its plan in response to one or more actual emergencies, these emergencies can serve in place of emergency response exercises. Each local public health agency shall complete an after-action report and improvement matrix within 60 days of exercise or real incident completion. The report and the improvement matrix will be submitted to CDPHE.

6 CCR 1009-5 Regulation 1

38 CR 15, August 10, 2015, effective 9/14/2015

42 CR 08, April 10, 2019, effective 5/15/2019

46 CR 06, March 25, 2023, effective 2/15/2023

46 CR 10, May 25, 2023, effective 6/14/2023