LCDR Karen Chaves, CAPT Nate Tatum, CDR Sally Hu

The Regional Incident Support Team – National Capital Region (RIST-NCR) has proven to be integral to the overall success of the region’s Emergency Support Function 8. The team is comprised of PHS Officers who live and work in the National Capital Region (NCR). RIST-NCR is one of eleven RIST teams. Each RIST team is a short-term response asset available to Regional Emergency Coordinators and Regional Health Administrators within the region. Moreover, RISTs are Tier 1 teams that can deploy within 12 hours of activation. These deployments are typically very short lasting between 1 and 3 days.

The primary areas of RIST activities and reporting include:

• Support and direction for incoming response assets;
• Liaison with State, Tribal and local officials;
• On-site incident management; and
• Response asset health and safety.

In the National Capital Region, the RIST is most often deployed to support the region’s National Security Special Events which are of national significance. These include, but are not limited to, the State of the Union Address (insert picture 1), the National Peace Officer’s Memorial, and the National July 4th Celebrations. These are mostly predictable events with hundreds of thousands of visitors and/or mass gathering of dignitaries. Other unpredictable events may occur throughout the year as well as regional and extra-regional incidents which require ESF #8 functions to be activated such as Hurricane Irene in 2011, the Haiti Earthquake in 2010, and American Samoa Tsunami in 2009.

RIST-NCR has successfully supported the Emergency Management Group (EMG) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s Operation Center (SOC) and more noteably the NCR Incident Response Coordination Team (IRCT) during 15 public health emergencies and nationally significant events since 2009. During these deployments, team members took on various leadership roles within the incident command structure such as administration/finance, logistics, planning, and operation sections, along with providing liaison officers to various partner agencies.

In 2011, RIST-NCR has also:

• Completed a Performance and Needs Analysis to assess training needs;
• Created a Dashboard tool to track each team member’s availability, deployment and training history;
• Created a Continuity of Operations Plan phone tree; and
• Developed training plans for each team member based on their chosen deployment role.

Currently, RIST-NCR is working together with the Office of Readiness and Response (formerly OFRD) of the Division of Commissioned Corps Personnel and Readiness (DCCPR) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to provide training opportunities to team members. Team members access FEMA’s on-line training courses, have hands-on training conducted by ASPR personnel during deployments, and receive classroom training during IRCT operations (Insert picture 2). These ongoing training and learning opportunities enable team members to increase their professional capacity and skill set to the level required to work interchangeably with federal full time employee IRCT counterparts in their respective positions/roles on various missions.

RIST-NCR provides PHS officers excellent opportunities to take on leadership roles and make significant contributions to HHS emergency response missions by rapidly responding to public health needs in National Capital Region.

“It’s a very rewarding experience being part of RIST-NCR. We have the opportunity to deploy and work together several times a year, but we’re still able to maintain a stable work schedule and we don’t have to worry about being away from our families for a long period of time,” says CDR Sally Hu.

“Even though we work in an environment where we’ve got very high level exposure to the EMG and the REC (Regional Emergency Coordinator), it’s a very supportive environment, and we take training and hands-on experience very seriously,” says CAPT Nate Tatum.

If you are in the Washington Metropolitan Area and are interested in joining RIST-NCR team; please contact CDR Sally Hu at hus@mail.nih.gov . For more information about Regional Incident Support Teams please see: (RIST-NCR: http://ccrf.hhs.gov/ccrf/FactSheets/RIST_Fact_Sheet_FINAL.pdf).