Iowa agricultural assessment report

Iowa After-Action Report

A close examination of the 2008 Iowa After-Action Report reveals the importance of communications systems in such emergencies. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012), it is recommended that the State and healthcare coalitions, in collaboration with healthcare organizations conduct a resource assessment in preparation for emergencies by identification of gaps for incident response including communication. As evident in the report, the response information and communication system proved less effective.

The lapses in the information communication system included the failure to properly execute the Outlook Web Access (OWA) online e-mail application due to the programs time limit for access. The Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) was a critical communication center that coordinated operations for the Department of Public Health as well as the State Emergency Operations Center. It is apparent that the staff in the center could not access the standard Microsoft Outlook desktop e-mail client because of configuration issues. This led them to adopt a web-based Outlook Web Access client for accessing departmental e-mail. This forced them to request for assistance from the Information Management Bureau to enable the staff login remotely.

In addition, there was a problem with the Iowa Capacity Reporting System. This system is important the response unit as it is designed to request bed capacity information from each hospital in Iowa. During the disaster, the system could not be put to use and it required additional time to configure the utilization.

Nonetheless, there was also evidence of technical problems with the computers in the Emergency Coordination Center. There were three main problem areas; the first one was that the access to the computers required individual security access codes. The problem here was that during the emergency response, the staff members were moved through the center thereby requiring a generic staff position access code, which could not be installed at the time. The documents in these computers were stored under different access level and were not accessible for incoming staff members.