Hospital Command Center Nets

In order to function efficiently and effectively during a communications emergency, each Hospital Command Center (HCC) is expected to maintain simultaneous connectivity with several county and local amateur radio nets. The expected level of monitoring for each of the nets is described below. Some suggestions for personnel assignments are also provided.

Recommended equipment to support these nets can be found here: Hospital Command Center Equipment

All HCCs are expected to monitor and participate in these nets for the most basic level of communications.

Continuous

• County Hospital Net
  • All hospitals should remain checked-in and continuously monitor the county Hospital Net.
  • The county Hospital Net is used for voice communications between hospitals and the Medical Health Joint Operations Center (MHJOC).
  • When the packet station is not operational, the county Hospital Net is the primary ARES/RACES voice net for hospital status and formal message traffic at hospitals.
• County Packet Net
  • All hospitals should remain checked-in and continuously monitor the county Packet Net.
  • The Packet Net is the primary net for message traffic between hospitals and the MHJOC and city EOCs. It is about 15 times faster than voice communications and automates logging, acknowledgments and other EmComm workflow.
  • Until the packet station is operational, the county Hospital Net or city Tactical Net will need to be used. This slows down the voice nets for all cities/agencies.
• City Net
  • All hospitals should remain checked-in and continuously monitor their city's designated net (tactical/message, command, ...).
  • The city nets are for communications between the city EOC and locations within the city.
  • Each hospital should follow the communications plan for its host city. Typically, this will involve monitoring the message or tactical net for the host city.
  • Help and additional resources, such as with fire, law, utilities, amateur radio, or other local resources, are coordinated with the city EOC.
  • Traffic volume between hospital and city EOC is expected to be fairly low.

Possible

• County Command Net
  • Generally, there is no need or expectation for hospitals to continuously monitor the county Command Net.
  • The county Command Net is primarily used for command-level (management to management) communications between cities/agencies and the county, and for technical support with data communications.
  • If the hospital is having a technical problem with one of the county ARES/RACES data communications services, it could use the county Command Net for support, leaving the Hospital Net open for message traffic.

HCCs are strongly encouraged to participate in as many of these nets/services as is possible. Note that the use of these nets/services requires higher speed access connections. Such connections require a higher degree of planning due to line-of-sight issues.

• County E-mail
  • HCCs will increasingly want to support standard e-mail since it is commonly used in standard HCC operations.
  • Note that e-mail has no EmComm workflow capabilities. So, it is not likely to be used as the primary method for handling official message traffic in the near future. The automated message numbering, tracking (delivery receipts) and logging performed by the Packet BBS system and Outpost packet client are still better for official message traffic.
  • But e-mail can be very useful for sending attachments. For example, if phone service is out, then so is fax. But the document could be scanned and e-mailed.
  • E-mail is also better for 3rd party health and welfare messages since it can handle the various formatting and encoding methods that are part of most Internet e-mail messages today.
  • For more information, see: E-mail Service
• County Intranet
  • Currently, there are no required intranet services.
  • But access to the packet system via a high speed intranet connection is recommended for all HCCs.
  • And hospitals could use Intranet connectivity to share larger files than are appropriate for e-mail attachment.
  • For more information, see: Intranet Service
• Public Internet
  • Currently, there are no required Internet services.
  • But HCCs can benefit from an alternate/auxiliary connection to services such as WebEOC and EMResource.
  • For more information, see: Internet Service

The other types of nets in use throughout the county are listed here for completeness. There is no expectation that a Hospital would monitor any of these nets.

• County Resource Net
  • There is no need or expectation for hospitals to monitor the county Resource Net.
  • Requests for additional hospital resources are usually coordinated with either the MHJOC or the city, not the county EOC.
• County Message Net
  • There is no need or expectation for hospitals to monitor the county Message Net.
  • Hospital message traffic is usually between the hospitals and the MHJOC on the county Hospital Net, or between the hospital and the city on the city net.
• County EOC-to-EOC Net
  • There is no need or expectation for hospitals to monitor the EOC-to-EOC radio.
  • The EOC-to-EOC radio is not an amateur radio net. It can be used by any EOC personnel for coordination between EOCs.

• Voice Personnel
  • Several radios will be needed for continuous and simultaneous monitoring of multiple nets.
  • But separate radios does not necessarily mean separate people.
  • For example, as mentioned above, the traffic level for any individual hospital is typically low on the city Net (especially when packet is used).
  • Some examples of personnel assignments:
    • One person handles voice communications. A different person handles data communications.
    • One person handles the county Hospital Net. A different person handles data communications and other optional voice nets.
    • Ultimately, the best mix of people and nets will depend on the traffic volume expected on each net, the number of operators available, and the skill of those operators.
  • Our training classes cover tips, techniques and equipment (stereo headsets, splitters, etc.) that can be helpful when working two nets at the same time.
• Data Personnel
  • Most hospitals can use a single operator for data communications.
  • As described above in the Voice section, and depending on traffic volume and other factors, the data communications operator may also monitor a voice net.
  • If higher traffic is expected and/or maintaining multiple printed copies is needed, then an assistant (which need not be an amateur radio operator) can be useful.