Pasadena Public Health Department Deploys Virtual Command Center for Sierra Madre and Southern California Wildfires
The Pasadena Public Health Department deployed the MissionMode virtual command center last week in response to the California wildfires. By using MissionMode, they were able to reduce their time to action, while increasing the effectiveness of their response for the community.
Winston Salem, NC (PRWEB) May 7, 2008
Winston-Salem, NC (PRWEB) May 7, 2008 - California is going through another onset of ravaging wildfires that put homes, business and lives in danger. The Pasadena Public Health Department has taken action to make sure that the community has the resources it needs in order to respond and recover from these devastating situations. With public safety and health at the forefront, the health department has chosen to use MissionMode, a leading provider of emergency notification (http://www. missionmode. com/products/emergency__notification/index. htm) and crisis management software, for emergency operations. Early last week, in the wake of the wildfires, Pasadena put MissionMode to the test, with outstanding results.
After making the decision to deploy the use of MissionMode early last Monday, the Pasadena Public Health Department was able to ensure that all key personnel were up to speed on all events surrounding the wildfire. By logging onto the MissionMode online Virtual Command Center (http://www. missionmode. com/products/incident__management__system/index. htm), officials were able to track events in response to the incident and update progress made on the incident action plan that was uploaded in to the command center. Press releases and other public notices were also posted into the command center so that calls from the press could be easily and directly answered by the public information officers, allowing more effective and clear communication to the public through the media.
The Pasadena Public Health Department used MissionMode to make sure that they had the proper personnel and information to ensure the public was safe. With different incident command functions logging in information to the command center, the health department was able to alert their critical staff and on-site nursing care to air quality and evacuation needs and procedures. With many of the evacuees worrying about the state of their homes and lives, the Pasadena Public Health Department was also able to send out mental health workers to the shelters to talk with people and address concerns, all of which was managed with MissionMode.
"Having the MissionMode system in place was a great benefit to our department as we were all able to quickly and efficiently keep all field, emergency operations center and department operation center staff in synch with each other," said Ed Anderson, Emergency Operations Unit Coordinator for the Pasadena Public Health Department. "Everyone could be virtually at the same place at the same time and have access to all the same information. We were able to streamline our meeting process by covering hot topic issues online and directing our staff to the discussion thread that covered their issue rather than taking precious department time. Redundancy was kept to a minimum. MissionMode was everything that we could have hoped it would be and it was easy to use. It definitely proved its worth."
About MissionMode:
MissionMode Solutions, Inc. is a technology services provider dedicated to streamlining crisis communications and facilitating team collaboration in a secure environment. MissionMode's unique combination of alert notification and online crisis management creates a virtual command center that helps private and public sector organizations reduce the time between knowing about a mission critical issue and doing something about it. MissionMode is a portfolio company of SilkRoad Equity LLC (www. silkroadequity. com), which specializes in public safety technologies amongst other high growth sectors. For more information, visit www. missionmode. com.
# # #
