Wiesman, HPM doctoral student, authors review of H1N1 response in Washington State

John Wiesman, MPH, CPH

John Wiesman, MPH, CPH, doctoral student in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Executive Doctoral Program in Health Leadership and public health director in Clark County, Wash., is lead author of an article in the January issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

The article, “Lessons Learned from a Policy Decision to Coordinate a Multijurisdiction H1N1 Response with a Single Incident Management Team,” is a case review of four health departments in Washington State (Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties) and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe collaborating to conserve resources in a response to H1N1 flu. The counties and tribe delegated authority to a single incident-management team to conduct a response to the H1N1 flu. The article describes the process and challenges involved in the response.

Wiesman said the experience was a lesson in leadership.

“Five health directors took a calculated risk to implement a regional response by delegating their jurisdictional authority to a single team,” Wiesman said. “First that team was led by public health professionals, and then we called in a more skilled response team led by fire and law enforcement officials. We don’t know of either of these things happening elsewhere for a public health emergency response. This is something for which we planned and trained but had not yet done ‘for real.'”

Wiesman noted that as financial resources diminish, public health leaders need to consider where and when to regionalize some aspects of their work. “And we better get cracking,” he said, “because it isn’t for the faint of heart.”

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.