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Department Operations Center

doc4The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) Department Operations Center (DOC) is the location of centralized management for coordinating public health and medical response to a disaster. The purpose of the DOC is to bring together representatives from divisions of IDOH and its ESF-8 health and medical partners for more effective and efficient problem-solving and use of resources. The DOC operates only during, or in preparation for, disasters of a certain scale. DOC staff acts as accessible subject matter experts for their assigned roles and acts in conjunction with other DOC team members to achieve a quality response to public health and medical needs.

Primary DOC Role:

  • Support incident management and field operations: touchpoint for questions and information transmission
  • Situation assessment: collect and process all information to facilitate informed decision-making
  • Incident priority determination: demands for limited resources must be ranked with consideration for life, property, complexity, environment, and economy
  • Critical resource acquisition and allocation: collect requests for resources and either match to available, or seek alternatives where not readily available
  • Support and coordinate with the Indiana State Emergency Operations Center ESF-8 Representative
  • Coordinate with executive staff: keep executives informed of events and potential future requests for resources
  • Coordinate summary information: prepare public health plans and reports for integration into larger response plans and reports
  • Liaison: an intermediary between larger State response and local health departments, hospitals, and other health system partners
  • Strategic leadership: develop response strategies and maintain strategic response boards

State Emergency Operations Center

When activated, the IDOH DOC works closely with the State Emergency Operations Center and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security during emergencies and disasters through the ESF-8 representative to ensure a coordinated state response.