Public Health Preparedness, Schoharie County Department of Health

Left to Right: Front Row: Lili Morgan, Public Health Sanitarian; Brenda Hewett, Public Health Sanitarian; Eva Gigandet, Public Health Preparedness Coordinator; Cathleen Buskey, Service Coordinator; Dianne MacMillan, Administrative Support; Kim Euler, Accounting Supervisor

Back Row: Linda Hill, RN; Elizabeth Black, Children's Program Assistant; Carl Christman, Public Health Sanitarian; Valarie Manchester, Public Health Nurse; Santa Dibble, Administrative Support; Karen Simmons, Preschool Special Needs Coordinator and Early Intervention Official

Not Pictured: Christine Binkley, Service Coordinator; Kristi Robbiani, Speech/Language Pathologist; Bradford Van Luipen, Weights and Measures

Schoharie County's innovative Public Health Preparedness Coordinator, Eva Gigandet, is known for thinking outside the box. Schoharie County Department of Health (SCDOH) was an early adopter of using the Countermeasure Data Management System (CDMS) for rabies clinics, treating every clinic as an opportunity to exercise our Emergency Point of Dispensing (POD) equipment and capabilities. This frequent practice ensures that all staff members are experienced with CDMS and that many staff members are also able to efficiently set up the mobile computer and printer network. Running rabies clinics as PODs also provides practice for other emergency management skills, such as crowd management. The public is encouraged to pre-register on-line for clinics, further enhancing SCDOH's ability to respond quickly and effectively in the case of a public health emergency.